


Orange and Blueberry Skies

by Book_Warrior7, Singing_Dream



Series: Alternate Skies [2]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Adult May, Alternate Universe - Underswap, Blood, F/F, F/M, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Suicide attempt, Injury, Mage Culture, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Soul Bond, The Void, The girls are still mages, The girls' abilities as mages now have names, Think the red string of fate myth, Void shenanigans, magic shenanigans, sexy fluff?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-02
Updated: 2017-08-11
Packaged: 2018-11-22 00:55:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 37,171
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11369202
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Book_Warrior7/pseuds/Book_Warrior7, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Singing_Dream/pseuds/Singing_Dream
Summary: It was just like any other day...or, at least, it started out that way. But when June rescues a monster couple from the clutches of her bratty co-worker, what she doesn't expect is everything that happens after. Lose her old job, get a new one, gain some new friends, and...her Soul becomes bonded to the one monster in the group who doesn't automatically trust her. And she can't blame him - humans haven't exactly been very welcoming to the monsters, or to the newly-revealed mages living among them.The catch?June and her sister May aren't exactly human. And the girls are trying to keep it a secret.Since monsters trust mages even less than they do humans, and June is now bonded to quite possibly the most suspicious monster of them all...well, let's just say there won't be a dull day from now on.





	1. Chapter 1

June masked a string of curse words by ducking her head so that it was directed more towards her breasts than her irritatingly bratty co-worker. Bethany’s behavior was getting so bad that June was dreading coming into work every day. Not that she liked coming into work anyway – her job as a cashier and sales clerk at Hot Topic sucked some serious ass. But Bethany’s shifts always made it worse. The girl had attitude issues bordering on extreme, and she was always aloof and bitchy to everyone…but she was the worst with monsters.

Monsters had come down from the nearby Mt. Ebott just short of two years ago, but most people were still distrustful of them, and so they got some pretty shitty treatment. June herself had no real issues with monsters, and neither did her younger sister, May. But they were among the few that treated monsters with anything that wasn’t disdain, disgust, hatred, or fear. Honestly, June didn’t even care one way or the other about monsters – to her, they were just people. (People with extremely varied appearances and magical abilities, but people nonetheless. And hey – who was she to judge for either of those things?)

Most people, however, didn’t have June’s ability to see past a person’s outward appearance so easily, so monsters generally had it pretty bad. And it was people like Bethany that proved that point. Any time a monster would come into the store, she would avoid and ignore them until she could tell someone else to deal with them. And if she did have to interact with a monster, someone else always had to step in before she said or did something that would get them sued, or her fired. But no matter how many times June and the other employees would scold her and try to get her to change – if only for her own sake – she wouldn’t listen to them and would flat out ignore their advice, doing pretty much the exact opposite as soon as she could.

Thus, June absolutely hated Bethany, but was unsurprised by the fact that the younger clerk was again mouthing off and verbally attacking the monster customers that had walked in. Still, she knew she had to do something, so rather than wait out whatever scene the blonde was likely to cause, June approached with a very displeased frown.

“What did you just say to my girlfriend?!” one of the two growled, and June hastened to get between the yellow reptilian monster and her co-worker.

“Bethany. I need you restocking the band tees.”

“You’re not the boss of me!”

“Keep that up, and no one will be the boss of you – because you’re sorry ass will be out of a job. Now get moving.”

Bethany sneered and flipped her long ponytail over her shoulder.

“Whatever,” she replied as she turned on her heel, “I didn’t want to be over here talking to those _things_ anyway.”

June gritted her teeth and physically bit down her tongue, forcing herself not to jump to the monsters defense, instead only issuing an animalistic growl at the retreating girl’s back. (The startled look on her face as she hurried her departure almost made June smile in satisfaction. Almost.)

Once Bethany was dealt with, June relaxed her posture and sighed, running and hand through her long dark hair. She hated being senior clerk and cashier sometimes…no, most of the time…oh, fuck it. She just hated it period. Finally, she turned back to the monster couple with a grimace, long slender fingers still knotted in her hair.

“Sorry about her. She’s…always like that, unfortunately. But I’d be more than happy to try to help you instead.”

The yellow reptilian monster snorted and regarded June coldly. After dealing with Bethany, she could understand. Instead, she took the opportunity to subtly study both of the monster women standing before her.

The shorter one had a shit-ton of scars all over, and one eye that seemed to be permanently closed, if she had to guess from the scars over the eye itself. This was the reptilian one, and it didn’t go unnoticed that she had some pretty wicked claws and a maw full of sharp, fang-like teeth. She was dressed in a simple set of cargo pants (though how she made room for her tail was beyond June), a black form-fitting tank top, and combat boots. It was an outfit June could really get behind, as she had many a similar set of clothes in her own closet. And from the scars, the yellow monster was some sort of fighter or warrior. June could respect that, too.

The other monster was very different. She was some sort of tall blue fish monster, with flaming red hair pulled back in a high, but long ponytail. She had on jeans and sneakers, with a nerdy tee June almost cracked a smile at. She recognized that anime, if only because they literally always carried merch in the store for it. (Personally, June didn’t see the appeal of _Mew Mew Kissy Cutie_ , but hey – to each their own, as she liked to say.) The taller monster woman also had on a pair of thick glasses and a denim jacket, tying the look together with a cute flourish. Despite how good she looked, though, it was clear that nervous wreck was her default setting, and whatever Bethany said had only made matters worse for the poor woman. She was wringing her hands and sweating, tears in her eyes and face flushed. June guessed it was some form of social anxiety. At least she knew how to handle anxiety.

Softly, so other nearby patrons wouldn’t hear, June leaned closer to the two and gave the taller monster a sympathetic look, adding, “Look, if you need a minute to collect yourself, I can either get you a changing room, or take you into the back or something. That way you’re away from any assholes that’d make your anxiety worse.”

The fish-woman looked up from the floor to June in surprise, and her girlfriend matched her shock.

“How’d you know about her anxiety?” the yellow monster asked. June shrugged.

“I’m pretty good at reading people. And I know the signs. Anxiety’s a bitch, I know. So what’s it gonna be? Back room, or changing room?”

She hesitated, but finally the blue monster manages out, “Wh-wherever it’d be e-easier for me to have A-Alphys with me.”

(Aww, poor thing. June wondered for a split second if the stutter would go away when she calmed down…and figured, probably not.)

Thinking on it, the ravenette nodded to herself and gestured for the two to follow her.

“Changing room it is, then. I’ll guard the door so nobody bothers you while you calm down, ‘kay? And take as long as you need. If I can just stand in front of the door for the rest of my shift, I’ll be glad – it means less time around that bitch that was giving you such a hard time.”

The reptilian woman – Alphys, hadn’t the other one said? – seemed to regard June for a moment, studying her, as if the monster couldn’t believe she was being so nice. June couldn’t blame her, but was a bit surprised when the woman gave her a small appreciative smile a minute later.

“Thanks,” she murmured to June as she slid past the green-eyed girl and into the commandeered changing room after her girlfriend. (Part of June wondered how that worked, as a reptile and a fish. But after a minute of thinking on it, she guessed the answer was magic and let it go.) June flashed a kind-of smile back and nodded, standing in front of the door to guard it as she said she would. It took a while, but the gentle nudge of the door bumping into her from behind told her they were done and ready to be handled now.

Stepping away from the door, June gave both monster women a much more natural and relaxed smile than the first one she’d shot their way, giving them room to leave the changing room.

“Any better?”

“M-much. Thanks.”

(Aww, she was right. The stutter didn’t go away. But it was kind of cute when the fish monster wasn’t freaking out.)

“No problem. Like I said, I know anxiety’s a bitch. I’m just glad I could help out. Speaking of, back to work…what can I help you guys find?”

The yellow reptile and blue fish both stuck by June’s side as she maneuvered them through the store, helping them find what they were after. (Which was mostly nerd/anime merch. Again, not really June’s cup of tea, but she could respect that they were into it.) And they managed to avoid running into Bethany again until June brought them up to check out.

“You can’t do that, you know,” came her snotty voice. June’s facial expression twitched, but she controlled the urge to sneer and roll her eyes.

“Can’t do what? Check out customers? I didn’t realize you could dictate what the senior employees could and couldn’t do,” the ravenette fired back. Bethany glared at her.

“I _meant_ you can’t check out _monsters._ It’s against company policy. If you do, it’s grounds for dismissal.”

“What? Since when?” the older girl demanded, earning a smug look from the younger clerk.

“Since last week. You didn’t get the memo?”

June gritted her teeth, suppressing her more violent urges.

“No, I didn’t. And I don’t believe you.”

“Fine. Then I’ll just go get Matt.”

“Yeah, you do that. Little fucking bitch-ass hipster wannabe…” June muttered under her breath, just quiet enough that the retreating blonde couldn’t hear her. The snickering behind her told her at least one of the monster girls had heard her, and when she turned with an apologetic look, the short one started roaring with laughter.

“Nice comeback!” she cried, raising a clawed hand up for a fist bump. June chuckled and fist bumped her, kind of proud for getting such a positive response out of the suspicious little reptile.

“Sorry you have to wait here until this gets settled, though.”

They both shrugged.

“Shit happens. It sucks, but shit happens,” the rowdier of the two replied. Her girlfriend nodded.

“Well, hey, thanks for being so chill and understanding.”

“A-after you w-were so nice and helped us w-with everything? I-it’s the least we could do!”

June gave them a small appreciative smile, her most genuine smile yet. Finally, Bethany came back with their manager, Matt. And he did not look happy.

“What’s this about a policy issue?” he sighed to June. She frowned and glared lightly at Bethany.

“Bethany tells me there’s some new policy about checking out a monster being grounds for dismissal. I said I didn’t believe her because after a week of it being in place, someone would have told me by now.”

Matt sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, a barely audible, “Shit,” slipping past his lips. June’s eyebrows raised, not because her manager swore, but because she didn’t like the implication the word brought with it. When he looked up at her again, he looked mildly irritated, but mostly apologetic.

“About that, June…”

“You’ve gotta be kidding me. She’s telling the truth? This shit is for real?”

“Yeah, and I wish it wasn’t as much as you do. It’s bullshit, but corporate made a decision so far above my head, it might as well be in orbit. My hands are tied, and unfortunately, so are yours.”

June couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

“What the actual fuck? Why? Why would they do that?” she demanded, “That’s such bullshit!”

“I know, I know –”

“And why the fuck was I not told about this sooner? How did this little bitch find out before me?”

“Because I knew you would react like this, June. You have a pretty explosive temper, and while you’re pretty good at keeping yourself in check at work, I knew this was something you’d blow up about. I can’t say that I blame you, but still.”

“Are you seriously gonna let her call me that?!” Bethany interjected, to which both of them turned to her with, “Shut up, Bethany.”

Matt turned back to his senior employee and looked up at her. (Most employees were taller than the stout man, but June towered over him as the tallest of the bunch.)

“I seriously cannot believe this, Matt. How can you not be fighting this? You’re just as chill with monsters as I am. Hell, I know you’re even more of a sympathizer than I am – you’re dating a fucking elemental, for fuck’s sake. Can’t get more sympathetic than that as long as interspecies marriage is illegal.”

“I know, I know, I know! And Kokari was just as pissed to find out about the policy change as you are – we both were livid. But like I said, it came from so high up in the company, I can’t even name the bigoted fuck-head that said ‘let’s do it.’ I want to fight it, June – you know I do – but I could lose my job if I do. And Kokari knows it, too. She knows I need this job, so I can’t quit or protest or do anything that might get me fired. There’s no way to win this one.”

June’s jaw clenched reflexively, anger starting to cloud her mind.

“Fine,” she spat, whipping around and cancelling the transaction. She didn’t even bother turning around to catch their surprised faces before she began to ring up all the items again.

“Uh, June? What are you doing?”

“Fighting back,” she replied darkly, not missing a beat in what she was doing.

“How? What exactly are you doing, June?”

Blood red lips pressed into a line, she finished ringing up the items for the monster couple, but when it asked for payment options, June first ran her employee discount card, knocking off a good chunk of the price. With that action, Matt seemed to figure out what she was up to.

“June, don’t. Seriously. I’ll have to fire you. You’re basically forcing my hand, here.”

“I don’t care. I’m done laying down and taking this shit. Dumb fucking shit policies handed down by corporate executives that only care about money, shitty ass people like brat breath over there, no one taking a stand and just fucking _doing_ something for a change instead of saying ‘well that sucks’…I’ve had enough. I’m putting my foot down. I’m taking that stand, and I don’t care if I’m the only person who does. This. Is. Fucking. Bullshit. And people have always told me I’m a girl of action. So this girl of action is taking action. Fuck this shit. Fuck all this shit. Truth be told, Matt, I’ve always hated it here anyway,” June finished, swiping her card to complete the purchase and bag the items. “This is the excuse I need to get off my ass and do something with my life.”

Once all the items were bagged, she handed them over to the shocked monster couple with a strong and defiant look in her eye. To them, she nodded politely and added, “I hope you two have a much more pleasant rest of your day.”

With that, she turned on her heel and faced Matt with that same expression, studying his slack-jawed expression for a moment before patting him on the shoulder.

“You, have a good rest of your life. Give Kokari my regards and support. Nothing but well wishes for the both of you, really.”

Then she turned to Bethany and stared with a look that could have scorched a block of ice. The young blonde took a couple steps back.

“And you…go fuck yourself with the biggest and most painful cactus on the planet, you prickly ass cunt.”

The look on Bethany’s face was priceless, only made better by the sudden burst of courage she seemed to get from the insult. The younger girl jumped forward and made to slap June. And the older girl could have dodged…but she chose not to, because it then gave her and excuse to lash out right back. Once the slap landed, June froze her in place with a terrifying expression, followed by a heavy sock to the stomach that knocked the wind out of the blonde. While she was still reeling, June nailed her in the jaw, sending her to the floor.

“You have no idea how long I’ve wanted to do that…” June sighed, satisfied with the results. She then turned to Matt with an almost perky smile.

“You want me to clock out before I get my things, or after?”

“Uh…” Matt answered eloquently, taking a small step away from June himself. “Before…”

“Okay.”

June then clocked herself out, and, head held high, marched to the back to get what little she brought with her to work. With it in hand, she repeated the proud and defiant march right out of the store. Good riddance, she thought to herself. Pretty quickly after she left Hot Topic, she heard footsteps approaching her from behind, followed by two people flanking her on either side. Turning her head in confusion, she was surprised to see that it was the monster couple she’d helped, both of them looking at her with stars in their eyes.

“That was so fucking awesome!!” the shorter one declared, pumping her fist into the air.

“Yeah! You were like the most badass anime heroine ever! Only even cooler!”

(Oh. Huh. So the taller monster girl lost her stutter when she got excited or passionate about something. Cute.)

“Uh…thanks. I was just…well, you heard everything. No sense repeating it.”

Both nodded, then surprised her by latching onto her arms and starting to drag her with them.

“Wha- hey! What the hell?”

“You’re coming with us, punk!”

“You’ve gotta meet our friends! They’ll like you for sure!”

June was so baffled, she didn’t think to use her powers to try and keep them from taking her along wherever they were going as she struggled.

“Wait just a minute! I barely even know you two! I don’t even know your names, for crying out loud!” she protested. They both just grinned at her.

“We’ll do introductions when we get to the restaurant!” the reptilian woman replied enthusiastically.

“Y-yeah! We’re m-meeting our friends there for lunch!”

“Wha- I – meeting who where?”

They both laughed and continued to drag June along until the got to the restaurant in question.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, first, let me just say how floored I am at how well received this has been. Like, it's only been a week? And OaBS already has like 6 kudos and almost 50 hits?? I'm just...gosh, you guys have no idea how happy it makes me to see something like that. It really warms my heart, and inspires me to do more for my stories. Thank you guys so much! *happy author noises* Okay, I'll retreat now and let you guys enjoy the chapter.  
> *sticks head back in* Oh, but before I disappear completely, I do have one other thing to add. This chapter deals a bit with LGBTQ stuff and racism, so if you're not into that, you may wanna skim a good chunk of the Olive Garden section...just a heads up! *retreats again*

Once inside, the two explained they were with a party called “Snowdin”, and they would need an extra chair. The perplexed hostess showed the three women to a table full of monsters before borrowing a chair from a table not currently in use and plopping it down for June.

Still standing, the two finally released June and started talking to their friends.

“Hey nerds! What’s up?!”

“HELLO, APLHYS!! HELLO, UNDYNE!!” cried a small, blue-eyed skeleton monster with as much energy and enthusiasm as the yellow reptile. (Right, Alphys. Her name was Alphys. So was the fish lady Undyne, then?)

“Hello Captain Alphys, Dr. Undyne,” answered a large white…goat monster?...with a golden beard and fangs and massive curved horns. His voice was calm and soothing…and very, very deep. (June was mostly hung up on the horns, his sheer size, and his voice. Like, whoa.)

“Hey guys!” a small brunette child waved excitedly to them, the sleeve of their green-and-yellow striped sweater covering their hands as they waved. Their rosy cheeks and red eyes could have easily been creepy, but right now, they just looked cute as all hell.

“yo,” replied the tall skeleton monster slouching in his chair, the lights in his eye sockets trained on June, rather than the pair who’d greeted him. “who’s the human?”

“PAPY! THAT’S RUDE! BUT HELLO TO YOU, TOO, HUMAN!!”

“Oh! Yes, hello! Pardon my manners, but I did not see you right away, child.”

“Cool! Another human! And she’s pretty! You should come sit by me!”

June blinked and blushed, the sudden attention and confusing situation overwhelming her.

“Uh…hi?” she finally answered. “I…have no idea why I’m here? Ask them?”

“R-right. We still need to do introductions.”

“I got this!!” Alphys grinned, turning to June. “So, punk! I’m Alphys, former captain of the Royal Guard! And this sexy fish right here is my girlfriend Undyne!!”

Undyne squeaked and blushed furiously, burying her face in her hands as Alphys pulled her close. (Ha, that was pretty damn cute.) The reptilian monster then pointed to each of the people she introduced in turn.

“That’s Asgore, former king of the monsters and Chara’s dad. That little punk right there is Chara, the monster ambassador. That’s Sans, and the lazy ass next to him is Papyrus.”

“Alphys, language, please!” Asgore scolded, to which the former captain of the Royal Guard (whatever that meant) winced.

“Sorry, Asgore. Anyway, they’re brothers, and used to be my sentries in Snowdin forest. We all got pretty close ‘cuz of the little punk, so we get together sometimes.”

June nodded, understanding, but she was still kind of overwhelmed. Then something seemed to dawn on Alphys and she cringed.

“I…didn’t catch your name. Sorry.”

“Hey, no big. It’s June. Juniper Skies. But seriously, call me June,” she replied automatically, offering her hand for Alphys to shake. (Holy shit did Alphys know how to shake a hand! Ouch!)

“Nice grip,” June forced a smile, cringing as she massaged her hand. Alphys laughed heartily before turning to the group.

“So you heard her. Name’s June, and she actually did something pretty badass. So we go into Hot Topic a bit ago to shop, and when we approach this other girl who works there, she’s a total…punk, cover your ears. She’s a total bitch to both of us – you’re good, punk – and she starts to make Undyne cry. Then June here jumps in and sends her off to do something else away from us. And after she does that, she let us just have a changing room so Undyne could calm down from her anxiety because of that…other girl. When we’re done, June sees us around the store and helps us avoid the other chick while we get our stuff. Then, when we’re about to check out, the other b…chick comes over and stops June. Says something about a new policy that says monsters can’t shop at Hot Topic anymore, and she’ll get fired if she checks us out. Then the manager shows up and confirms it, and June gets pissed. But this is the best part – after her manager says there’s nothing any of them can do, June here –” (June releases an _oof_ as the short reptile pulls the tall young woman to her side and almost makes the taller girl topple over) “– voids our transaction, rechecks the items, adds her employee discount, _buys them for us,_ and all the while, giving this badass speech about how she’s taking a stand on behalf of monsterkind. Once it’s done, she knows she’s fired because her manager doesn’t have a choice, and so she just hands us the bags, wishes us a good day, tells her manager to have a good life, and tells off the other b…girl. The other chick slaps her, so she knocked the bratty little thing to the floor with two hits before clocking out and getting her things. Coolest thing I’ve ever seen a human do outside of an anime.”

And again, Alphys and Undyne were looking at her with those starry eyed expressions, to which June blushed and rubbed the back of her neck awkwardly. But before she could get a word in edge-wise, the others started talking.

“Wow, really? That was so cool of you! Thanks for standing up for my friends, Miss June!”

(Oh god. Next chance she got, she was correcting the kid. “Miss June” was reserved for her AI and only her AI.)

“WOWIE! THAT SURE WAS BRAVE AND KIND OF YOU, HUMAN!! YOU MUST REALLY BE SOMETHING SPECIAL FOR ALPHYS TO HAVE TAKEN TO YOU SO QUICKLY, BECAUSE SHE HATES HUMANS!! I WISH TO BE YOUR FRIEND, TOO!!”

“Golly! How noble of you to stand up for us like that. I thank you for your kindness and valor, Miss Skies.”

(Oh _hell_ no. Forget correcting the kid – she needed to correct goat dad first.)

June’s blush got worse, and she folded her arms across her chest, her nervous tick of curling her hair behind her ear in these situations triggering almost immediately.

“Wow, uh…I…I really didn’t do anything all that special. I mean, it was just…I’d had enough. That policy was the last straw, and I just couldn’t take any more. It…really wasn’t that big a deal…”

Alphys guffawed, slapping June hard on the back, again almost knocking over the girl. She winced and rubbed her stinging shoulder, trying not to scowl at the yellow reptilian monster.

“HA!!! Look at you, being all modest and bashful now! I knew you’d get along well in our group!”

“Wait, what?” she stared, confused. But the others (the silent Papyrus aside) were nodding in happy agreement.

What the hell just happened? How did her day go from a regular shitty day at work to losing her job and gaining several new self-appointed friends?

Undyne guided the bewildered girl to sit, flashing her a smile and handing her a menu. June stared down at it for a second before looking around at the others with a very lost expression. Alphys just continued to laugh at her confusion and chat with Sans and Asgore. Undyne patted her arm and whispered, “I know w-we were kind of pushy about this. But we r-really wanted you to meet them after what you d-did for us! A-after all, not many humans would do something like that for a monster. Sorry if it was t-too pushy…”

“No, no…you’re fine. Just…I’m a bit overwhelmed is all. Today is not going how I thought it would,” she sighed, running a hand through her hair. Undyne winced and nodded, patting her arm for support gingerly.

“Y-yeah…sorry about that…”

Now June directed her attention to Undyne specifically, looking less lost and more properly confused.

“Sorry for what? You didn’t do anything wrong.”

“W-well, you lost your job b-because of us…”

“Oh. I…” she huffed a slightly bemused laugh, her small smirk seeming to confuse Undyne. “Yeah, losing my job sucks, but it was a crap job anyway. I hated it. I’ve worked there for years and was only the senior employee because I’d been there the longest and had the most experience. Besides the manager, of course. Anyway, point is, I’m not even upset about the job. I mean, yeah, part of the surprise today was that, but that’s kind of…not as important. And hey, don’t be sorry. Don’t apologize, hun. It was my temperamental…behind…that choose to do what I did. And while I think tomorrow I’m going to realize that I really could have handled that whole situation better than I did…I don’t regret my actions. I _won’t_ regret my actions, and I’m certainly not going to apologize for them. And neither should you.”

June ended her impromptu speech with an encouraging smile to Undyne and a gentle rub of her arm. Undyne’s eyes looked rather awestruck behind her glasses, and she murmured something June couldn’t understand. It wasn’t until that moment that the ravenette felt eyes on her, and when she turned her head, she found the table had gone quiet and everyone was looking at her with varying degrees of surprise, pride, awe, and approval. June flushed and blinked at the attention.

“What?” she barked defensively as she grabbed her menu and hid behind it. “I didn’t say anything all that interesting. And it’s rude to eavesdrop, you know!”

The table burst into laughter, with Alphys clapping her on the back again almost making her head-butt the table. (Why had she let the monster couple flank her when they pulled her to sit down?) June grimaced as she rubbed her shoulder, already feeling the bruises form from where the reptile had thumped her already. (She would have to say something to Alphys about her strength…this was worse than when May was coming into her powers!)

“I hardly think it eavesdropping if we are sitting at the same table, child!” Asgore chuckled, “But I see your point. It was rather rude of us to listen to yours and Undyne’s conversation. I am afraid, it seems, that we were unable to help ourselves. While I cannot speak for the others, I found your words to be inspiring and insightful. I feel touched by your actions and words, and I thank you for sharing them with us.”

June blushed, but put down her menu, choosing not to hide behind it this time.

“Ah, well, I…I don’t know what to say. Um, thank you?”

Then June felt a small tug on her jacket sleeve, to which she turned with confusion. Chara stood next to her chair, an enthusiastic smile on their face. When it was clear they were waiting for something, June pushed her chair out enough so that she could turn around and properly face Chara, only to have them climb into her lap before she could even ask them what they wanted.

“Um, can I help you, small child?” she asked, a little miffed to have her personal space invaded so suddenly. Chara didn’t seem fazed by her annoyed tone.

“I wanted to tell you that I thought what you said to Undyne was really nice. And that what you did for both Alphys and Undyne was great. So thank you…for being one of the few who stood up and did the right thing.”

“Oh…uh, thanks, kid. And you’re welcome. But did ya have to sit in my lap to tell me that?” she chuckled, more bemused than anything now. Chara smiled more, their red eyes sparkling happily.

“Yeah, because there was something else.”

“Oh? And what’s that?”

“Well, I wanted to ask if you were a photographer…because you look picture perfect.”

June’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. Had this little kid just flirted with her? Before she could stop it, a surprised little laugh slipped past her lips as a grin wormed its way onto her face.

“Well, then! Let me follow up with this: you must be made of copper and tellurium, because you are cute,” she answered, tapping Chara on the nose lightly. Chara looked surprised, but confused. She then leaned closer and whispered, “Copper and tellurium are elements of the periodic table. Copper’s symbol on the table is a capital C and a lowercase U. Tellurium’s is a capital T and a lowercase E.”

Once Chara understood her highly intelligent flirt back, they blushed and looked at her in surprise, which got a true laugh out of her.

“You’re talking to a flirting master, kid. I’ve got years of experience on you. But I’ll give credit where credit’s due. It’s a bit cheesy, but you’ve got some game. Respect. Who knows, maybe I could teach you a thing or two,” she added with a quick ruffle to Chara’s hair. With the kid still stunned into silence, she chuckled and moved the child out of her lap, picking them up and taking them back to Asgore.

“I believe this belongs to you?”

Asgore laughed as he took Chara back from June, returning the child to their seat. As June sat back down, she noticed Sans bouncing up and down in his chair and staring at her with literal stars in his eyes. (Eye-lights? It was hard to classify the blue orbs in his sockets, but they definitely had star-shaped pupils right now.)

“Um, something you want to say…Sans, right?”

“CORRECT, HUMAN! I AM THE MAGNIFICENT SANS!! MWEH-HEH-HEH!!! AND I DO INDEED HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY! I THINK YOU ARE VERY NOBLE AND KIND TO DO AND SAY WHAT YOU HAVE FOR US! AND I BELIEVE IF WE ARE TO BE THE BEST OF FRIENDS FROM THIS DAY FORWARD, WE SHOULD EXCHANGE PHONE NUMBERS!!”

June’s expression turned to blank surprise at the excited little skeleton.

“What.” She deadpanned the word so hard, it wasn’t even intoned like a question. Then she shook off the surprise and clarified before Sans could answer.

“I-I heard you the first time, so you don’t have to repeat yourself. I just…I’m confused.”

“ABOUT WHAT?”

June hesitated, debating how to word what she wanted to say. Going her usual blunt route would absolutely crush the little guy, she could tell. He seemed as innocent and sweet as the actual child at the table, and she didn’t want to hurt his feelings. (Hell, he kind of reminded her of May in a way…) So how did she rephrase questioning the sudden declaration of friendship without stepping on any toes…?

After a minute of silently struggling to come up with a better way of voicing her feelings, she sighed and gave up, running a hand through her hair.

“Forget it. It’s nothing.”

“IT IS NOT NOTHING IF YOU ARE CONFUSED ABOUT IT! PERHAPS WE CAN HELP YOU WITH IT!!”

June gave him what she hoped was a convincing smile as she shook her head.

“It’s alright, Sans. Really. I’ll figure it out myself later. Let me get my phone for you…”

The gray and blue-clad skeleton perked up considerably at that, but instead of handing the ravenette her phone back once he was done with it, he passed it around the table, essentially helping her collect everyone’s numbers. Only Papyrus didn’t bother, the only one so far not to praise her or even so much as say anything to her. Not that he was ignoring her – far from it. He was watching her like a hawk, actually, studying her every move. Once she finally caught his eye, they stared at each other for a bit, June trying to get a read on the quiet skeleton, and his expression reading the same.

Weird, June found herself thinking as her phone was finally passed back to her, breaking her stare. It seemed they might have a few shared traits, including a healthy distrust of others. Not that she could blame him – honestly, she was shocked how easily their group took to her, given that she was human. (Thank god they didn’t know what she really was, in that case…who knows how they’d react to her being a mage…)

“Yo, badass nerd! You and Papyrus quit making eyes at each other and decide what you’re gonna order already!” Alphys barked in her ear, making her flinch. She actually did scowl over at the reptile for a moment before Alphys’ words sank in. When they did, she flushed bright red.

“I was not making eyes at him!” June countered, practically throwing her menu at the poor waitress. “And I’ll have the pasta e fagioli.”

She practically growled her order, but still pronounced the Italian perfectly, getting some surprised raised eyebrows. Undyne, who still had her menu, glanced for what June had just ordered, and quickly asked her to point it out.

“It’s this one. Under the soups. Pasta e fagioli,” she answered calmly, pointing to the name and pronouncing it again. Undyne looked impressed.

“How do you kn-know how to pronounce that? I don’t know that I could ever figure it out by looking at it!”

“Well, it’s not from coming to Olive Garden excessively, I can tell you that much,” she chuckled. “I learned Italian in high school. One of my favorite languages, actually. I speak it fluently, but rarely get to use it.”

“Wow! That’s so c-cool!” Undyne declared with sparkly eyes, the others seeming impressed too. June blushed lightly and chuckled a little.

“Eh, not really. I mean, out of the countless number of different languages in the world, I know a total of four. It’s not that impressive.”

“It’s more than most people know!” Chara retorted. “Heck, even those who do know another language usually only end up being bilingual. You’re…quad-lingual? Is that a thing?”

June smiled, the child getting another one of her rare true and proper laughs from her.

“I don’t know if quad-lingual is a thing, but if it is, I most certainly would be it. The only thing bi about me is my sexual orientation!”

Chara grinned and laughed at the comment, the only one to truly understand what she meant. The two humans glanced at each other before starting to explain.

“She means that she likes both boys and girls.”

“Humans call it being bisexual, but most just shorten it down to bi. To be specific, it means I can be romantically and sexually attracted to both genders.”

The monsters at the table nodded and made the appropriate noises of understanding.

“WHY WOULD THEY CALL IT BY A SPECIAL NAME? IS IT NOT NORMAL FOR HUMANS TO LIKE BOTH GIRLS AND BOYS?” Sans asked. Both the humans cringed. (As did the waitress who was rushing off to put in their orders.)

“Um…sort of?” June answered, running a hand through her midnight locks. “See, most humans just assume that everyone is heterosexual, meaning they can only like the opposite gender. So when someone says they aren’t like that, it…does make them different. At least, to the people that assume that. Uh, let me put it this way: humans have very specific social standards depending on where in the world you are. Most places and people in the world are a part of societies where the social norm is to…for girls to only like boys and boys to only like girls. So people that don’t follow that social norm, that don’t conform to that social standard are labeled as not normal. Weird. Different. So, socially speaking, no, my being bi is not normal. Which is why they gave it a special name.”

“OH. BUT THEN, WHAT DO THEY CALL IT WHEN TWO BOYS LIKE EACH OTHER, OR TWO GIRLS?”

“Well, both relationships would be called homosexual, but they both have gender-specific names as well. A girl who likes girls is called a lesbian. A boy who likes boys is gay.”

“BUT WHAT ABOUT PEOPLE WHO DO NOT HAVE A GENDER, LIKE CHARA?”

June raised an eyebrow and glanced at Chara, who was cringing.

“I…I already explained to them about me being non-binary.”

“Oh. Well, good for you, kid. Prefer they/them pronouns?”

With a surprised expression, Chara nodded. June nodded back, humming her approval.

“Cool. I’ll try to remember that from now on. And to answer your question, Sans…I’m not sure. There’s lots of things about the LGBTQ community I don’t know, like the names for specific types of relationships.”

“LGBTQ?”

“It stands for lesbian, gay, bi, trans, and queer. Trans can refer to either transgender people, transsexual people, transvestites, maybe…anyway. Queer…I can’t answer that one. I don’t have enough information to help you out there. The LGBTQ community is basically anyone who’s not heterosexual, and therefore doesn’t fit into the societal norms. Like me and Chara.”

“Well that explains why some humans mutter things like lesbos at me and Undyne…” Alphys frowned, crossing her arms. June grimaced.

“Yeah. It’s another way to say lesbian, but it’s usually used in a derogatory way. It functions as more of a slur than anything.”

Alphys’ frown deepened. What a heavy turn of conversation…

“and what about people in an interspecies relationship? do they have a special name?” Papyrus asked, the skepticism clear in his tone. June tilted her head to the side, letting her long hair fall over her shoulder as she thought.

“I don’t think they do? But I can’t be for sure. Though I could probably tell you all about the different negative ways humans could and have looked at interspecies relationships…” she sighed, the list already starting in her head. “I won’t though, because that’s not something you guys need to hear. I’m not going to be the one to expose you to that level of human negativity. Let’s change the subject, shall we?”

Everyone made noises of agreement, but couldn’t think of what to say for a moment. And, as luck would have it, they didn’t seem to need to. A couple police officers walked over to their table and tapped June on the shoulder.

“Ma’am? I’m afraid you and your…friends will have to leave.”

“What? Why?” (Though whether she considered the monsters her friends was debatable, she wasn’t going to say so in front of the cops currently harassing them.)

“Disturbing the peace, ma’am. All of you are going to have to leave the restaurant.”

“Disturbing the peace? That’s bull. We haven’t been that loud,” June argued, turning around in her chair to face the officers better.

“We’ve gotten complaints, ma’am.”

“From who?”

“We’re not at liberty to –”

“So nobody.”

“Ma’am, that’s not what I –”

“You’re just harassing us because you saw us and don’t like monsters.”

“Ma’am, this isn’t a racial issue.”

“I’m calling bull. And I’d call you out on it properly, but there are small children nearby. So let’s try this again,” June added, getting up from her chair and giving the two officers a glare so frosty, it was sub-zero. “You either came in because you saw us and decided to harass us because you’re cops and would legally get away with it, or some bigoted a…Chara.”

“Ears are covered,” the brunette child called.

“Or some bigoted, self-righteous asshole wanted us to leave for no reason other than there are monsters in our party. So which is it? Are you the assholes I suspect you are, or are you two following the complaints of some other ignorant fucktard?”

The officers bristled at her blunt (and frankly disrespectful) remarks, but made no move to back down or tell her what she wanted to know. June, for her part, didn’t back down either, waiting patiently for an answer. For a few tense moments, it was nothing but back and forth arguing, both the cops and June stubbornly standing their ground. Then one of them threatened to use force to remove them from the premises and grabbed June’s arm.

The shift in the room was palpable, as she slowly glanced from the officer’s hand on her arm to the officer’s face. There was a spark of dark fire in her eyes, heightening the sharpness of her already piercing gaze.

“ _You have to the count of three to remove your hand from my person,_ ” the ravenette growled, her voice low, slow, and menacing. It wasn’t clear if it was the way she spoke, the look in her eye, or the almost evil aura that pervaded the air around her, but both officers shivered slightly, and the one not touching her took a step back.

“ _One._ ”

“Ma’am, I’ve already told you –”

“ _Two._ ”

“You need to stand down –”

“ _Three._ ”

On three, June yanked out of the policeman’s grip so hard, he toppled towards her, and she socked him in the face. When he staggered back from the blow, she latched onto his wrist with one hand and spun him around with the other, twisting his arm behind his back in such a way that if she put too much pressure on it, she would break it. The one she had a hold of cried out in pain, while the other drew his weapon and aimed at her. Cries of fear rang out throughout the restaurant, followed by the scrapping of chairs and the panicked rush of footsteps to evacuate the room. Then, everything stilled.

“Ma’am, let him go,” the other officer ordered, leveling his gun at her head. June scoffed.

“You’re not gonna shoot. One, you’re scared. I can see your hands shaking from here. Two, I’m an unarmed civilian. And no matter what the circumstances are, I know for a fact that internal affairs does _not_ look kindly on officers that shoot unarmed civilians. Three, that little toy in your hand doesn’t scare me. I’ve faced a hell of a lot worse than you, so don’t bother. And four…how much you wanna bet that if I called your boys’ precinct right now, they’ll tell me that you weren’t dispatched to this location, and aren’t responding to any complaints, as you claimed?”

“Ma’am –” the officer tried again, inching closer to her. June twisted the other one’s arm a little more, causing him to cry out.

“Ah, ah, ah. Let’s not forget who’s actually in control here, eh, buddy? Now, we’re gonna do things my way from now on. If you don’t comply, I break your partner’s arm. Got it?”

The officer hesitated, but eventually lowered his shaking weapon, aiming it at the floor. June smiled a little.

“Good. Now I’m going to ask one last time…did you come here just to fuck with us, or were you actually sent here?”

When he didn’t reply, she began to slowly apply further pressure to the arm of the officer she held, his short cries of pain quickly getting a response.

“Alright, alright! We…we _were_ sent, but not for noise complaints. A worker just didn’t want you here, and asked us to remove you.”

“And by ‘you’, you mean the monsters.”

“Yes,” he sighed reluctantly. June hummed, satisfied.

“Good boy,” she said, releasing her captive cop with a shove towards his partner. “That wasn’t so hard, now was it? Now scram. Your job’s done. Go on, get out of here. _Before I change my mind._ ”

She added the last sentence in her previous scary tone, sending both officers scrambling to get away from her and out of the restaurant. Now for the more important part…

“Let that be a lesson to everyone,” she said, raising her voice so the whole room would hear her, glancing around to make sure the workers and other patrons were listening. “You’d better think twice before harassing monsters. They may not be willing to retaliate, but there will be some humans like me willing to defend them…and you have no idea what those people are capable of. And as for whoever had the gall to call the cops to remove my friends here for no reason, let me say this. If I _ever_ catch anyone harassing these kind and gentle people ever again…let’s just say I’m not afraid to get my hands dirty.”

A collective shiver seemed to run through the room, but June ignored it in favor of turning to the group of monsters (and small human child) staring at her. She was unsurprised by the mix of shock, awe, and slight fear in their gazes.

“Come on, guys,” she sighed, gesturing for them to follow her. “Let’s ditch this place. I know of somewhere downtown that’s much friendlier and with food a thousand times better than this dump.”

She turned on her heel with her head held high and walked out, moving with all the grace, poise, and confidence of a queen. The group of six scurried to follow her, still staring and silent.

Once a good distance from the Olive Garden, June stopped walking, surprised by the buzzing and music coming from her pocket.

“ _Hakuna matata,_ ” her phone sang, delighting Sans and Chara. “ _What a wonderful phrase. Hakuna matata. Ain’t no passing craze._ ”

The ravenette winced and mouthed a quick apology to the monsters as she answered the call. There was only one person who had that ringtone, after all, and when she called, June always picked up, no matter what.

“Hey, baby girl. What’s up?”

“Hey!” May chirped from the other line. “I’m guessing you’re on your lunch, since you picked up so fast. So where are you?”

“Over by the Olive Garden,” June replied slowly, highly confused. “Why? Where are you?”

“Wha-? What are you doing over there? Did you change your mind about –”

“Oh,” June answered, drawing out the word as she remembered, then drawing out the first letters of “shit” and “fuck” without actually swearing. The sigh she gave got a laugh out of May.

“You forgot, didn’t you?”

“Yeah. I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry. I swear, I knew we were supposed to meet for lunch today. It’s in there somewhere, I swear. I just…I’ve had so much going on today…”

“Aww…wanna talk about it?”

“Definitely,” June answered, the weariness in her tone making May chuckle sympathetically. “But it’s gonna be a change of plans. Can you meet me at the Italian place downtown?”

“Um, sure? But why there?”

“You’ll see when we get there.”

“We?”

“I’ll explain later. Thanks for being so cool about this, baby girl.”

“Well of course, sis! What’s family for? Besides, you know I’m very ‘hakuna matata’ about a lot of things.”

“Yeah, that I do,” June chuckled, smiling despite herself. “Hey, I’m gonna let you go. I’ll see you in a few.”

“Yep. Be careful and take care!”

“You too. Heart you, kiddo.”

“Heart _you!_ ”

With that, the sisters hung up, and June turned to the group of monsters still following her…to find Alphys right behind her. She jumped, startled to find the reptile so close, and stepped back. She quickly relaxed, though, and sighed, shaking her head.

“Dude, warn me next time before you go all ninja!”

This seemed to relax the majority of the group, pulling laughter from them. Alphys grinned and turned to the others.

“See? What’d we tell ya? Is she badass or what?”

“THAT REALLY WAS QUITE IMPRESSIVE! EVEN IF THE SWEARING WAS A BIT EXCESSIVE!”

“Indeed. It would seem we have quite the powerful new ally.”

“Man, that was so cool! The cops were all like, ‘you need to stand down,’” Chara imitated, making a gun out of their hands as they mimicked the cop, “And you were all like, ‘heck no, I won’t stand for this injustice.’ And you moved so fast, and it was kinda scary for a minute, but really exciting, and you were so calm and cool and tough and…you’ve gotta teach me how you did that!!”

June laughed for the third time that day, blushing lightly and embarrassed by the praise of the small child. She took two steps forward with a smile and crouched down to Chara’s level.

“Tell you what? Since you don’t strike me as the fighting type, how about I teach you some good defensive moves from my arsenal, eh? Things that’ll help you dodge better and stuff.”

Chara nodded excitedly, seemingly eager to learn anything from the girl. June’s smile widened. Really, Chara kind of reminded her of her sister when she was this young…

“Alright then. But first, lunch,” she added with a ruffle to Chara’s hair. The child giggled and took it in stride, still grinning at her as she rose again and focused on the adults in the group.

“So the place I’m talking about is downtown, so we’ll have to drive. Where did you guys park?”

Following the monsters out the door, Asgore, Undyne, and Papyrus all pointed to different spots in the parking lot. (Well, shit. Not only were none of them near where she parked, but coordinating the three different cars to follow her would be a hassle…oh well. Since this was her fault anyway, she would deal with it.)

“Okay…so none of us are parked close. Here’s the plan: everybody get in your cars and drive over to the bend back to the main road over there. I’ll try to get there first to flag everyone down before we get going. That way, you know what car to follow.”

June’s plan went off more or less smoothly, once they knew what her car looked like to follow it. Arriving at the restaurant she’d picked, they all found parking and piled out in front of the little hole-in-the-wall Italian place June and brought them to.

Gesturing them inside, June was almost immediately tackled by a blur about her size. She managed to recover her balance before the younger Skies girl could topple the two, and June looked at her with a scolding expression.

“Really, May?”

“Yes, really! I was looking forward to seeing you, since your work hours have been so crazy lately!” May hummed happily as she nuzzled into June’s shoulder, adding, “ _My_ sister!” with a girlish giggle. June sighed, but hugged May back with a grin of her own, pleased to see the younger ravenette. Once she finally let go, June turned her sister to see the group that had followed her in.

“May, this is what I meant by ‘we’. Guys, this is my little sister, Mayflower.”

“May. Please, call me May. Hi. Wow, um…you totally could have warned me!”

“About what?”

“How many people you’d be bringing! I’d have had them already setting up the table for us or something.”

“Oh…uh, yeah…I’ll give you that one. My bad. I totally wasn’t thinking there. Whoops…” June conceited with an embarrassed chuckle. May sighed, shaking her head with her hands on her hips.

“I swear, June…what would you do without me? Excuse me!” May turned, calling the host over before June could answer. (Not that she needed to. Neither girl really wanted an answer to that question anyway.)

“You didn’t mention you had a younger sister!” Alphys said, looking confused.

“Well of course not. I haven’t really had the time.”

“But then, who were you calling ‘baby girl’ on the phone?”

“Her. Not that it’s any of your business, little miss nosey scales,” June retorted, to which Alphys scowled. Undyne giggled, so June had to guess she hadn’t actually been offensive.

“Why call her ‘baby girl’?”

“Because that’s what I’ve always called her. It’s a term of endearment, after all. I just happen to use it to refer to my sister instead of a lover,” she shrugged. This seemed to catch them off guard.

“Certainly n-not the answer we w-would have expected…” Undyne added quietly. June again shrugged.

“What can I say? I like living by a different set of rules.”

May came back over then with a big smile.

“Good news! They’ve got their biggest table ready – with some extra chairs, of course!”

“Great. Thanks, baby girl. You’re the best.”

“Yeah. I know. You only tell me, like, all the time,” May replied with a flip of her hair and a giggle. “Anyway, let’s get seated.”

June settled on sitting one chair away from her sister, since Chara seemed set on sitting between the two. Sans was content to sit across from May, and Alphys settled in next to him before Papyrus could sit down. With Undyne taking the seat next to Alphys (which was across from June), and Asgore the one next to her, that left Papyrus to sit next to June…and he didn’t seem happy about it. June, in a show of really not giving a shit combined with politeness, scooted out the chair for him and gestured to it before turning to look over Chara’s head and talk to May. The other monsters, however, seemed to watch Papyrus struggle with slowly sitting down next to the older raven-haired girl. June was too focused on her sister to be bothered by his behavior.

“So why the change of plans? Besides that this is one of the most monster-friendly places in town.”

“Well…that was kinda the main reason. That, and you wouldn’t believe the scene at Olive Garden…”

June went on to explain what had happened with the two policemen while the group ordered their food. May gasped and gaped at her sister.

“Oh…my god! June! You could have gotten in so much trouble!”

“So? Would’ve been worth it.”

“Well…maybe, but that doesn’t excuse how rashly you acted. I mean, seriously! Holding one cop hostage while the other threatened to shoot you? What would you have done if he _had_ shot you? Where would you be then, hmm?”

“Well…”

“Ah! Don’t even think of trying to come up with an excuse. There was no need for violence, but because you have an inborn instinct to fight, that’s right what you jumped to. Now, I’m not saying you were in the wrong, sis – I mean, you told him to let you go. You gave him a warning and time enough to release you. He didn’t, so he suffered the consequences. But you still didn’t need to be so rough with him, or risk getting hurt from the other officer. You know better than that.”

June ducked her head, looking like a chastised child while her sister scolded her.

“All I’m saying is that you got lucky. That should have turned out very differently, and you’re really lucky it didn’t. How many times do I have to tell you to think things through and look for the peaceful way to resolve your problems? Violence isn’t the answer, and most situations can be resolved without resorting to fighting or violence. I know you know that.”

June stayed silent for a moment, then finally lifted her gaze from the floor.

“Sorry, sis. I know you worry, and you’re right. The end doesn’t justify the means. I did let my temper get the better of me, and I shouldn’t have. I’m sorry I worried you.”

May looked hard at her sister, her light pink lips pouting in a frown. But eventually, she relented and sighed, a patient smile softening her look as she extended an arm over Chara to June.

“I forgive you. I know you don’t mean to make me worry. But we’re sisters. It’s our job to worry and fuss over each other, right?”

June shot her a grateful, affectionate smile right back, taking her sister’s arm over Chara’s head in the closest approximation of a hug the two could get with the child between them.

“Right.”

The two were still smiling as they let go of the other’s arm, content that there was no negative air between them. Chara broke the sweet moment by commenting, “Wow…you guys communicate so well!”

The girls laughed lightly, not noticing the pointed look Chara gave both Sans and Papyrus.

“Well, we’ve had a lot of practice, sweetie,” May replied with a warm smile.

“Yeah, and not all of it was me being scolded.”

“I know, I know. I’m not perfect either. Never claimed to be.”

“Good. Because we both know I’d be calling bull.”

The girls laughed again, settling down just as the food came.

“Oh, good timing! This place has the _best_ Italian food. Like, everywhere else can’t hold a candle to this place,” May grinned, grabbing a forkful of her pasta.

“That’s because the owners of the place actually cook the food, too. They moved here from Italy years ago. Can hardly speak a lick of English between them, but nothing tops their cooking. Authentic Italian cuisine at its finest, my friends,” June added, biting a chunk out of her garlic bread.

Both girls hummed in satisfaction at the food, the monsters (and Chara) digging in shortly after. They all chorused their approval, too – even Papyrus couldn’t stay too upset with food this good.

All conversation was abandoned as they ate, save for the occasional offer to try a bite from one person to another, since everyone ordered something different. Just as they were finishing up, the owners came out to talk with them, and when they spotted June, they began speaking in rapid fire Italian, pleased to see her. She grinned and answered back flawlessly, if a hair slower on the delivery than they were. She gestured to the group and seemed to be doing introductions, as the portly older couple nodded and looked very surprised when she came to Chara and Asgore. Turning to the goat monster and the child, the woman said something that made June smile.

“She said she’s honored to have you here. She’s never had royalty in the restaurant before. She hopes the food was to your liking.”

Asgore looked relieved that the girl was willing to translate for them, and smiled kindly at the Italian woman in return.

“Oh, please, madam. Ex-royalty. I no longer hold the title of king, after all. And your cooking was wonderful. I believe I speak for us all when I say we could feel the love and care you put into every dish.”

The other monsters nodded emphatically, and June grinned as she translated what Asgore said, then added something of her own with a gesture to the others. The Italian woman looked very pleased, blushing and clapping her hands to her cheeks with a smile.

“Aww…that was really sweet, Asgore!” May turned to the ex-king with an encouraging smile.

“Actually, Dad meant it literally,” Chara explained to the girl. “See, when food is prepared with magic, the feelings of the maker are absorbed into the food, too. Most humans don’t really get that concept, so the food doesn’t always turn out very good. But they can actually taste that she has a lot of heart, and puts it into everything she makes. Even if we humans can’t.”

“Oh. Wow. I never would have known that!” May grinned, looking impressed with the kid. “That actually explains so much!”

“What does?” the child asked tilting their head as the adults continued to speak to the Italian couple.

“Oh, well…I’m normally a very happy and cheerful person. It takes a lot to keep me down! But see, what’s important about that is that…I work part-time at a small café there by the college campus. And every time I make something for a monster, they’re shocked and then complement it. In fact, we’ve actually become a really popular spot for monsters to hang out. Especially when I’m on shift! Everyone admits that no one makes monster food the way I do, and we’re always busiest when I’m on the clock! I never really knew why. But I guess that explains it. They can feel how positive I was when I made the food!” May concluded with a giggle. Chara looked mystified.

“Where do you work? What’s it called?”

“Oh, it’s the Blue Moon Café. Like I said, it’s over by the college campus. Thinking of dropping in sometime?”

“Absolutely! I’m sure the gang would love to go there, so I’ll have no shortage of rides!”

May and Chara laughed together, drawing the attention of the others finally.

“What’s up, buttercup?” June smiled to the younger ravenette. “Something I should know about?”

“Well, you know how a lot of monsters come into the café when I’m on shift?”

“Yeah?”

“Turns out, it wasn’t for the food! Well, it was, but not the way you’d think.”

May explained to June what Chara had told her while Chara told the monsters about the Blue Moon Café.

“Huh. Wow. That’s pretty cool. I kinda had a feeling it had more to do with you than the food, but what do you know? Turned out to be both. I’ll have to keep that in mind.”

May nodded, then both humans jumped when Alphys slammed her hands on the table.

“How come we haven’t heard of this place you work at, punk?” the reptile demanded of May. “Undyne WORKS at the college, and we’ve never heard of any Blue Moon Café!”

“Oh. Well, it’s not _on_ the campus. Just close to it. It’s about a block down from the architecture building on the edge of campus.”

Both monster women nodded, understanding now.

“W-we never go down that way unless we have t-to. Most of the professors in th-those buildings aren’t v-very nice…” Undyne explained, ear-fins drooping. May frowned sympathetically.

“I can see why you’d avoid it, then. But the café itself is actually monster-friendly – and not just when I’m there. One requirement of working there is to have an open mind. Any kind of meanness or unkindness or bigotry isn’t tolerated. So I guess in a way, it’s kind of a haven for the monsters that come in, since everywhere else around us is…well, the opposite.”

The pair nodded, looking much more eager to try going down to May’s work.

“So when are you on shift next?”

“This evening, actually. I usually get the closing shifts, since I don’t mind staying late. Like I told Chara, it takes a lot to actually bring me down!”

“Well, expect to see us coming by then!” Alphys declared, wrapping an arm around Undyne. The fish monster nodded in agreement. May beamed.

“Will do! I look forward to it!”

June smiled quietly from her seat, pleased to see the monsters getting along so well with May. She had raised her sister to be as open-minded as herself, and given that being kind, friendly, sweet, and charming were all just a part of May’s personality, it made sense that the monsters would find a friend with her. And really, she would prove the better ally for them – she was a pacifist, after all. She could better vouch and advocate for them than June could. Hell, May had come out as pro-monster from the start. June had only played her own opinions so close to her chest up until now because she didn’t care one way or the other. She hadn’t even cared enough before to want to get involved in the uproar that the issue with monsters had become.

Feeling eyes on her, June turned to find Papyrus staring at her again, with that same cautious, trying-to-get-a-read-on-you look that he’d had before. June blinked, stared back for a minute with a matching look, then got distracted by May getting her attention.

“So, I know you’d taken a middle of the road stance on this before. Why say something now? What happened? And how did you meet these guys, anyway?”

“Hoo, boy. Um…you’re not gonna like the answer…”

May instantly frowned, a wrinkle creasing her brow as she tried to guess why she wouldn’t like the answer.

“Is it because you did something rash again?”

“Yeah, but not something violent this time! Well, I did punch a chick, but she hit me first.”

“June…” May sighed.

“Just let me explain?”

The younger ravenette pursed her lips, but nodded, focusing intently on her sister as the older girl explained what had happened to lead up to her getting fired and leaving the store with Alphys and Undyne.

“And that was kinda what lead to the Olive Garden thing.”

“Oh wow…geez, June! Talk about a bad day! I mean, I’m proud of you for standing up for them peacefully – that was awesome of you, and I’m super happy you did – but getting fired sucks! What are you gonna do?”

June sighed and ran a hand through her hair, casting her eyes away.

“I dunno. I mean, I don’t exactly have the kind of skills most people look for.”

“What do you mean, child?” Asgore asked, the table listening to the two of them talk.

“Well, to be frank…I don’t have anything more than a high school diploma. Which means that the only jobs I qualify for are really low level, minimum wage ones. Like running the cash register at Hot Topic, or bussing tables at a restaurant, or flipping burgers at some fast food place. Nowhere else would hire me. And that’s only taking my education into account. If you look at my actual skillset, it’s…unusual to an extreme. I’m trained in every type of martial arts known to man, I’m fluent in four languages, I can cook like nobody’s business…I have some knowledge of physics, programing, engineering – mechanical and electrical – astrology, astronomy, medicine, chemistry, advanced mathematics, strategy, weaponry, politics, aerodynamics…I know a thing or two about music and pop culture, and at my core, I’m an artist. I draw and paint, and I design tattoos and stuff. I’m trained in gymnastics and acrobatics, and thanks to her, I’ve got a little bit of skill with dance and choreography. I’m pretty good at stealth, and my combat skills would rival that of any government or military trained soldier…” June huffed a short laugh that lacked any actual humor, stopping herself. “I mean, there’s so much I can do, but at the same time…there’s so much I _can’t,_ because no one looks for the kinds of things I can do. People don’t see much of it as practical, or useful to everyday life. I know I said I like living by a different set of rules, but…there are somethings you just can’t get away from.”

June scowled at the table, her chin in her hand, sulking a little. Losing her job definitely sucked. Her job had sucked worse, but still. Now it was to the drawing board for her to find a new one, and god knows how long that would take.

“Golly! You _do_ have quite the varied set of skills!” Asgore proclaimed, while Alphys, Undyne, and Chara all looked awed by her list of knowledge and skills.

“Tell me about it.”

“But that does bring up a good point. You are correct, not many people would look for someone with skills such as yourself. However, I have an idea. I must speak to Toriel about it, of course, but seeing how taken Chara appears to be with you…I do not think it would be too difficult to convince her.”

“Convince who of what now?” June deadpanned, confused. Chara pulled her down to their level to whisper in her ear.

“Toriel is my mom. She’s the queen of the monsters.”

“Oh.”

“I would be convincing Toriel of assigning you as Chara’s personal bodyguard…or perhaps, just a very well equipped babysitter,” the goat monster chuckled, Chara scowling at the idea of a babysitter. June’s eyebrows shot up in surprise – as did Papyrus’ brow bone.

“Seriously? You’d do that for me? Why?”

“You have already proven yourself to be a noble, trustworthy person. You are good with Chara, and can not only defend yourself, but others as well, should the need arise. You have a pure heart, and better intentions than most when it comes to monsters. Even when playing a more neutral role, your actions with Alphys and Undyne proved as much. I think there would be extremely few as qualified as yourself to watch over Chara…or any of us, for that matter.”

June blinked, floored by Asgore’s words. And it was clear he meant what he said. Very few times had June ever felt humbled by anything in her life, but this was one of them. In the presence of the royal monster stating such kind things about her as if they were fact, she couldn’t help feeling almost as if she didn’t deserve it.

“Wow, Asgore…I…I don’t know what to say…thank you…just…wow. Thank you. I…would be honored to work for you.”

Asgore beamed, pleased with her response. May grinned, pure joy dancing in her eyes as she hopped up from her chair and smothered June in a big, affectionate hug. The action got an incredulous laugh out of the older ravenette, who turned her still shell-shocked gaze up to her sister before returning it to Asgore, wonder and amazement overtaking the surprise.

The rest of the table was grinning, but Papyrus looked pretty skeptical, and it seemed like there was something he wanted to say, but didn’t want to voice it now. Still, his scowl didn’t dampen the mood at all as the group finally agreed it was time to go, heading up to the host to take care of the separate checks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh, and I almost forgot. Sorry this one turned out so long - before deciding to post it on AO3, I didn't have it broken up into chapters. I'm kinda trying to chop it up into more manageable pieces as I go. *nervous chuckling* Anyway, hope you guys enjoyed it, and see you next week for more!


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another really long one this time, guys! Oh, but **_POSSIBLE TRIGGER WARNING!!!!!!!_** There is a mention of blood, fenced off by a row of exclamation points like I usually do with possible triggers. I'll leave a summary of the section in the end notes. (Though it doesn't happen until near the end of the chapter, so...you're not missing out on that much.)
> 
> Oh, and if you're reading this in tandem with my other work, Breaching the Multiverse, then _**major spoilers ahead** for June's character!_ What I reveal here is major spoilers for later on in BtM because it pertains to June's backstory. If you want to wait on one or the other to catch up so it's not spoilers...I'd say pick this one for now, only because the reveal in BtM isn't for a long while yet. That said, if you don't mind the spoilers for June's backstory, read on!

Once the group was out the door (with a wave from June towards the kitchen and a shout in Italian to the owners), May checked her phone.

“Well, hey, I gotta head to work soon. I’ll run back to the house and change, but I don’t think I’ll see you again before I get off. Talk and chill more when I get home?”

“Definitely,” June chuckled, running a hand through her hair. May smiled back, and the sisters hugged briefly.

“I’ll see you later, then. Heart you!” the younger girl called as she winked and formed a heart shape with her hands. June smirked and chuckled, forming one back, but looking away.

“Yeah, yeah, you too.”

May laughed, but darted away with a wave. June waved after her, then sighed, tangling her thin fingers in her thick hair yet again. Well, since she didn’t have a job to go back to now…what was she going to do with herself? It was Saturday, so she supposed she could take her things and go to a park and doodle the passerby like she liked to do. Or she could just go back to her apartment and be a hermit for a while – train some on her equipment, or paint something, or fuck around on the computer, or watch some TV…if she wanted to work out and not be a hermit, she could go change and head to a gym. Or just change and go for a run. Oddly enough, going for a run was the only option that really appealed to her…

A hand clapping her sore shoulder brought her out of her thoughts, flinching before she could stop herself. June turned to see a surprised Alphys.

“Sorry. Ya kinda bruised me from hitting me so hard earlier.”

“Oh. Sorry…” Alphys replied guiltily. June just waved it off and shook her head.

“It’s fine. I’ve got an absurdly high pain tolerance, so it doesn’t really bother me. Anyway, what’s up?”

“Well, we were thinking…you don’t have anything else planned for the rest of the day, right?”

“No, not really. You actually caught me thinking about what to do with myself for the rest of the day. Why?”

“Since it’s a Saturday, Undyne’s the only one who’s got work –”

“I-I’m behind on collecting some d-data for my research.”

“– So we were thinking you could maybe spend the day with us! If, ya know, that was cool with you,” Alphys finished sheepishly.

June blinked, surprised by how nice that idea sounded. She barely knew these people, and yet…she wouldn’t mind hanging out with them. Maybe they would banish whatever this feeling was that was looming over her like a cloud. Finally, she smiled, nodding a little.

“Okay. Sure. Why not? May’s always saying I could use some friends, do some more socializing with the rest of the world. I guess I’m game.”

Alphys’ sheepish look quickly morphed to a broad, sharp-toothed grin as she latched onto June’s wrist.

“Then follow us, punk! Or, wait, we should probably just coordinate cars again…” she frowned, letting go of June as the girl chuckled.

Chara and Asgore evidently had something else they had to go do, so they split from the group and headed out, Chara waving enthusiastically to June. (And of course, June waved back. She didn’t hang out with kids much, but she actually preferred children to adults most times. Due to their youth and innocence, they were generally more open and accepting than most adults.) After coordinating the remaining three cars, June followed Alphys and Papyrus’ cars to a nice, two-story place that looked almost like it belonged in a gated community than the cute cul-de-sac it was situated in. June parked on the street and stared at the place for a minute, whistling her approval when she saw the Alphys and Undyne getting out of their car in her peripheral vision. Alphys came over grinning.

“Impressed?”

June nodded quietly, still studying the structure.

“It’s me and Undyne’s place. We fixed it up ourselves. Most of what you’re gonna see was her idea. Anything to make her happy, after all!”

June nodded, understanding the sentiment. She would do anything to make May happy, the same as Alphys would do anything to see Undyne happy – even if the circumstances were different. Once she was finally over her surprise, she came up to the house with Alphys, the two joining the skeleton brothers in waving goodbye to Undyne as she drove back to work.

“ALPHYS!” Sans declared excitedly as they entered the house. “ARE WE GOING TO TRAIN NOW, OR WATCH SOME ANIME, OR –”

“Hold up, there, little guy,” the reptile replied, turning to June. “Why don’t we ask what she wants to do?”

June, who had been studying the interior decorations up til this point (sleek, modern, high-tech look to almost everything – futuristic and impressive…yet also, surprisingly stylish), now refocused her attention on the pair of short monsters looking up at her.

“Huh? Oh, uh…I’m cool with whatever it is you guys would normally do. Like, pretend I’m not even here. I’m gonna be pretty quiet most of the time anyway.”

“What? Why?” Alphys demanded, looking confused and annoyed by the admission.

“Because I’m normally more of a lone wolf type. There’s a reason May was saying I need to socialize with people more. There’s a reason she said I need friends. I don’t actually have any. I don’t really do…friends,” she conceited with a shrug.

“NOT EVEN OTHER HUMAN FRIENDS?”

“No. Other humans…don’t particularly like me. I mean, I honestly don’t care if they do or not, but because I’m used to people avoiding me and not liking me, I don’t really…friends are not a thing. I might have a few friendly acquaintances, but that’s as close to friends as I’ve got.”

Alphys and Sans were quiet for a moment, as if they weren’t sure how to take this information. Then both latched onto her arms and started dragging her further into the house.

“YOU HAVE FRIENDS NOW, HUMAN! THAT IS WHAT MATTERS!! AND WE WILL BE THE BEST OF FRIENDS!!”

“Yeah! And we’ll show you what it’s like when you have friends, and what to do with ‘em!”

June just let them lead her, a bit bewildered. Why did they keep doing that, just grabbing her and dragging her along? Was that just a monster thing? She doubted it, but so far, three out of five monsters she’d met today had done it. It didn’t exactly lead to a good record. Besides, June wasn’t generally a touchy-feely type of person. She liked her space, and unless it was May, she generally wasn’t overly fond of being touched without her consent. Though, the monsters were starting to grow on her a little…she could try to make an exception for them. Hell, at this rate, she’d probably have to anyway.

“So, punk…” Alphys said as they finally stopped, bringing June out of her thoughts, “would you rather watch, or fight?”

“Uh?” June answered eloquently as she looked around the new room. It was a large room with various exercise machines and training equipment scattered around. Large windows and double glass doors allowed one a wonderful view of the backyard…half of which was horribly torn up. The other half was well kept, the flower beds in the back of the yard not even disturbed by the shredded bit of yard mere feet from them. Back inside, there was a machine in one corner June didn’t recognize, but she chose to ignore it in favor of the amusing inspirational posters hung around the room.

It was clear this room was not designed with Undyne in mind.

“Pretty sweet, huh? Undyne made this room just for me, since I let her have the rest of the house,” Alphys grinned, obviously proud. June nodded.

“All I have at my place is an old punching bag…” the ravenette murmured, taking in the different pieces of equipment again. She hadn’t even noticed that both monsters who’d dragged her back here had let her go so she could really get her fill of the room.

It was easy to forget that the monsters had come to the surface with a crap ton of gold, making them all instantly (and suspiciously, to most people) very rich. According to the monsters, that was just their currency in the Underground, so they didn’t really think too much of it. Really, it was more of a surprise that people were still accepting monster gold and exchanging it for human currencies.

“Really?” Alphys asked, the raised eyebrow clear in her tone, though June couldn’t actually see her facial expression.

“Yeah, really,” she answered, walking over to one of the machines for a closer look. “Found it next to the dumpster in the alley next to my building one day. Someone was throwing it out because it had a tear in the side. I grabbed it, re-stuffed it, fixed the tear, and have used it ever since. The tear will re-open sometimes – especially when I’m too hard on it – but since I can’t really afford anything else, I just patch it up and keep using it.”

Her words were met with silence, but she didn’t really notice. She was too busy admiring the exercise stuff.

“I can’t believe you have all the top of the line models… _god_ I’m so jealous! I would _love_ to have stuff like this. Well, I would if I had the room for it. And the money for it. Then again, if I had the money for stuff this nice, I’d probably be using it for more important things. Ah, never mind. I’m rambling,” June shook her head and waved her hand, then finally looked over at Alphys. The reptile was back to studying her quietly from where she stood. June’s excitement and enthusiasm instantly waned as her walls flew back up. (And this was part of why she didn’t try harder to make friends. No matter how she might appear, she was actually pretty awkward around other people. She had a way of saying just the right thing to make things awkward.)

“What?” she said, her expression waxing aloof and distant again as she glanced out to the backyard. “I didn’t think I said anything all that surprising.”

“Well, it’s just…you and your sister…you guys don’t have much, do you?” Alphys guessed. June knew where this was going.

“No. We don’t. But then again, we never really have, so we’re resourceful. We make the best out of what we’ve got. And as long as we have each other, that’s enough.”

Silence again, and June missed the look shared by the three monsters in the room.

“June –”

“Don’t. I don’t need your pity. And neither does May, for that matter, so just don’t.”

There was a pause, then the shuffling of feet coming closer. June stubbornly refused to look over at any of them, feeling an ache coming from deep in her Soul. That was something of a sore subject for her, after all. Then she felt one claw gently tap her arm for attention, and she glanced at Alphys from the corner of her eye.

“Yeah?”

“You never did answer my question, punk. You fighting, or just watching?”

June paused, seeing what Alphys was doing. The little reptile was trying to show her that things didn’t have to be weird. That they could just chill and not talk about it. June could appreciate that. But then, she also had no idea what the monster woman meant.

“Depends on what you mean by fighting.”

Alphys grinned, and the tension in the room lifted substantially, as June was no longer on edge.

“I mean, you wanna get in on me and Sans sparring or not?! It could be pretty wicked with three of us going at it! Oh, and we’d be going outside, so my training room doesn’t get wrecked.”

Well that explained why half the backyard was a royal mess.

“Could be fun. Sure, I’m game.”

“Sweet!” Alphys fist pumped, getting a small smile and a chuckle from June. “But first, there’s something we have to check. Get your ass over to that machine there.”

June looked where Alphys was pointing, regarding the strange machine she was referring to. What could she possibly be checking for? The tall girl did as she was told, but cautiously, wary of just what it was her new friend wanted to know.

“What’s it do?”

“You stand in this thing and it scans you. Then it tells us your Stats on this little display thingy.”

Oh. That wasn’t so bad, then. June relaxed a little, stepping into the cylindrical part that Alphys said would scan her. When the reptile monster pressed a button, it lit up and whirred to life. Not sure if she needed to hold still or not, June resisted the urge to look around the inside of it, just in case. Then, a set of lights came on by her head and ran over her body, though she shivered when it went across her chest. Whatever those lights were, they went through her and touched her Soul enough that she could feel it.

Once the machine is done, Alphys drew in a startled breath, glancing at June with new shock and fear. Sans and Papyrus glanced at the display as well, and both looked equally shocked, though Papyrus also looked highly wary and suspicious of her, too.

“What? What’s wrong?” June asked, honestly confused.

“Your Stats…how is it you have an EXP of zero, but your LV is two? And the rest of your Stats are stupid fucking high!” Alphys growled, confused as well, but wary, like Papyrus. June just shook her head. EXP? LV? She had no idea what they were talking about.

“I don’t know what you mean. I’ve only ever heard those terms before when talking about video games, so I can’t tell you what I don’t understand.”

“some stats are acronyms,” Papyrus explained, his tone as suspicious as his expression. “EXP stands for execution points. you get them when you kill someone. your LV is your LOVE, which stands for level of violence. the higher it is, the easier you can distance yourself from your actions. the easier it is for you to kill. everyone’s EXP starts at zero, and their LV at one. your LV is two, even though your EXP is zero. now, can you tell us why that is?”

June would have been irritated by the snotty tone he took at the end, but she was too horrified by the rest of the information he’d told her. That was as far from the video game versions of Exp. and Lv. she’d grown up with as you could probably get. And if her LV was higher than it was supposed to be, there was only one thing she could think of that could have raised it…

“I can’t explain the EXP. That’s just fucking weird. But I think I know why my LV is higher than one. It’s…a long story.”

“we’ve got plenty of time. spill.”

This time, June did shoot him an annoyed look, but stepped out of the machine and sat down on the floor, motioning for them to do the same. Hesitantly, Alphys and Sans did. Papyrus remained standing.

“Okay. So…when I was a little kid…my dad…” June sighed, running a hand through her hair. “My dad was an alcoholic. There was a time were things were good, and he didn’t drink. But when things got bad, and he started drinking again…it was a nightmare. He abused my mom, both verbally and physically. When I tried to stop him, he did the same to me. This went on for…it felt like eternity, but really, it was only like…two, three years, I think? I think it was worse for Mom, though, because sometimes…sometimes, if I couldn’t distract him enough, he’d…he’d take her back to their bedroom. I was too little to realize what he was doing then, but now I know.”

They all looked shocked by what June was saying, though Alphys and Papyrus much more than Sans. And really, she wouldn’t have told them if it wasn’t for the LV thing, because she hated talking about this to anyone. Not even her own sister had heard this story. But since she didn’t have a choice…

“Anyway, eventually, my mom got pregnant with my sister. That was enough to knock Dad back into being good again, and it was great. It was like the beatings and insults and drunken nights had never happened. It seemed like the nightmare was over. But it wasn’t. It was only the eye of the storm. May hadn’t even turned one yet before he went back to drinking. Which meant back to abusing me and Mom. We both did our best to protect May, hiding her from Dad so he wouldn’t hurt her, me or Mom hiding with her to keep her quiet while the other took the abuse…again, it felt like it went on for eternity. But really, it was just two years before it happened.

“One day, I was out in the backyard playing. Mom was inside cooking, and May was with her in the playpen. Suddenly, Dad comes home. It’s the middle of the day, and for whatever reason, he’s chosen to violate the restraining order against him and come home, drunk out of his mind. I don’t notice, of course, that anything’s wrong until Mom raises her voice and uses that special tone we worked on to warn me that I needed to grab May and go hide. But before I can do anything, I hear Mom scream, and I see her hit the ground. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that Dad’s hand was still raised from knocking her to the floor. So I rush in, trying to stop him, but he’s too fast and too strong for me – he catches me off guard and knocks me around, too, stunning me. With me and Mom both seeing stars, there’s no one to hide May, or quiet her when she starts screaming and crying because of what’s going on. So Dad turns on her. I start coming around then, and I know what’s about to happen. And I start panicking, because she’s so much littler than me or Mom, and she’s so young, and so fragile, and I just know…if Dad gets his hands on her, he’s going to kill her. So I start trying to reason with him, trying to tell him as much, but he won’t listen, and…and before I know what I’m doing, I’m on my feet, and I’m…I’m so _angry._ I’m so angry that things have gotten this far. I’m angry that no one has tried to stop this from happening before, and I know that no one is going to try stopping this from happening again if we all survive this. I’m angry because my perfect angel of a little sister is in danger, and she’s the only one of us who’s not been hurt…who’s not broken or damaged in some way. And most of all, I’m angry because of everything Dad has put us through, all because he can’t get his shit together for the sake of his family. And in that moment, I…I snapped.

“I…don’t remember exactly what happened next…but I do remember screaming. And the next thing I know, my dad is running around the house like a chicken with his head cut off. And that would seem odd…except that he was on fire. And everything he touched spread the flames, setting the whole house on fire. Again, I went into a sort of near-blind panic and just grabbed my mom, grabbed my sister, and hightailed it out of the house while we still had the chance. When fire fighters and police and paramedics got there, they said it was a miracle May wasn’t dead from the smoke inhalation. After they got the fire out, they found Dad’s body on the bed in my parents’ bedroom. He was dead long before anyone could have reached him.

“When they asked, we told them how I pulled Mom and May from the fire. Everyone was calling me a hero. But I didn’t feel like a hero. I mostly just felt numb. I knew it was my fault that our house burned down. I knew it was my fault Dad had died in that fire, and that May had almost died. I knew I should have been upset my dad was dead…but all I could feel was relief. He wasn’t around to hurt us or threaten us anymore…and that’s all I could think about. Somewhere along the way, he stopped being my dad and started being my abuser in my eyes…and honestly, to this day, I know the only guilt I feel isn’t for accidentally killing him. It’s for burning down the house, putting Mom and May in danger…and funny enough, for _not_ feeling guilty that I killed him. So, it may have been accidental, but that’s the only thing I can think of that would have raised my LV at all. I mean, you guys saw at Olive Garden. I’m plenty volatile…but I don’t kill.”

They all three nodded numbly, evidently too appalled to give a verbal answer. Even Papyrus was sitting on the floor now, her revelation too shocking to stay standing. She couldn’t blame them for their reactions. After all, it was a pretty painful story to listen to, let alone live. (Though, technically, she had lied about not remembering what had happened to set her dad on fire. But that wasn’t something they needed to know about just yet.)

“How…how old were you?” Alphys practically whispered, as if afraid of the answer.

“During what part?”

“Any of it. All of it. It doesn’t fucking matter.”

June hesitated, then sighed, casting her gaze to the floor, then outside as she spoke, her own voice very soft.

“I was three when it first started. Between five and six when he stopped again, and six for sure when May was born. Between six and seven when he started up again, and finally…eight when he died. May was two, so she doesn’t remember any of it. And Mom and I never told her. Neither of us had the heart. She knows Dad wasn’t a good person, that much is true…but she has no idea how lucky she was to grow up without knowing him.”

“by the sun, moon, and stars above…” Papyrus murmured, Alphys and Sans nodding in agreement.

“And that’s not even the worst of it. The worst part is probably the scars he left behind. A permanent reminder that I never needed,” June sneered, finally removing her jacket. She stretched out her arms for them to look at, pointing out the scars hidden beneath the intricate tattoos webbed across her skin. Their eyes went wide.

“Each and every one has a story, but there are so many, and so many of them overlap, that I can’t remember them all.”

Alphys pointed to one, silently asking for its story. It was a long one that ran down her shoulder and over her collar bone. June grimaced.

“That one was from the time he threw me at the living room window. It broke from how hard I hit it, and I wound up in the front lawn, covered in glass. That was one of my more painful hospital visits,” she added with a shudder. Sans, his hand trembling, pointed to one that stretched from the underside of her arm almost halfway around her bicep.

“That, and several others, are from when he threw me into the TV. Literally. I’d smashed through the screen and into the set itself, knocking it to the floor with me inside. Paramedics had a hell of a time getting me out. Almost bled out before they got me to the hospital, I was so cut up.”

Papyrus reached out and gently cupped her cheek, rubbing his thumb along the scar under her eye. It was June’s smallest and oldest scar, thus making it incredibly faint and difficult to spot.

“I’m surprised you even saw that one. That was the first. His wedding ring got me when he punched me in the face.”

They were all silent, the mood serious and heavy. And after all that June had revealed, even Papyrus didn’t seem suspicious anymore. In fact, he just kept gingerly tracing that one scar on her cheek with his thumb…looking into his eyes, June was surprised by the emotion she saw. It wasn’t pity like she would have expected after such a horrid tale. There was sadness, sure, and sympathy…but the surprising one was the understanding there. As if Papyrus could actually see into her Soul and found some other trait they had in common, more than just the distrust of strangers. Something that they could actually bond over…

All at once, June became aware they’d been staring at each other for a while, and how gentle the taller skeleton was being with her. It wasn’t lost on her how easily the situation could be misinterpreted, and she blushed, finally averting her gaze.

“You can, uh, let go of my face now.”

These words seemed to snap Papyrus back to reality, and he yanked his hand away as if he’d been burned, his cheekbones turning as orange as his hoodie. Alphys snickered behind a clawed hand while Sans giggled behind his gloved one, both making the blushing two’s reactions worse.

“Sh-shut up, the both of ya!” June barked, turning her back to them. This only made them laugh worse, while Papyrus yanked his hood up and hid under it, only an orange glow visible.

“I knew it!!” Alphys roared between bouts of laughter, “I KNEW you two were making eyes at each other earlier!!”

“We were not!” June shouted back, turning on the reptile. “I just happened to notice he was staring at me like he was suspicious of me for some reason, and I returned the favor! That’s all it was before!”

“Then what was that just now?”

June clammed up, not sure how to answer. It was a very good question, after all. What _had_ that been? Papyrus hadn’t looked suspicious of her anymore, that was for sure. And June had to admit, it had felt like a very vulnerable moment between them. She could have sworn she had actually felt something in her Soul as they’d looked into each other’s eyes. She couldn’t identify it, partially because it had been so brief, but…there had been something. And the more she thought about it, the more it scared her. But Alphys took her flustered, then thoughtful silence as admission to this staring contest being something more, and continued laughing her ass off. Traitorous little reptile.

“That’s what I thought! See! You two totally have a thing for each other!!”

“dammit, alphys! we do not!” Papyrus hissed from underneath his hood at the same time as June spat, “Shut the fuck up, ya little shit-stirrer!”

Alphys was rolling across the floor laughing, Sans just watching in amusement.

“YOU HAVE TO ADMIT, BROTHER…YOU WERE STARING AT THE HUMAN RATHER INTENTLY!”

“i don’t have to admit shit!”

“Ugh! Dammit, I don’t have to take this!” June growled, getting to her feet and starting to storm out of the room. Alphys caught her ankle on the way out, stopping her from leaving…and effectively tripping the tall girl.

June was surprised for all of a nanosecond, her gymnastics training kicking in right away. The instant her center of balance began to shift, she instinctively threw out her hands at the right angle to catch herself, moving easily into a hand-stand. With her momentum still pushing her forward, she launched herself into the air, twisting her body in a tight spiral to stick the landing with a smooth and graceful sweep of her leg. Once she straightened, she huffed at Alphys and gave her two middle fingers before spinning back around and marching out of the room.

She fumed and marched all the way to the front door before two sets of feet caught up with her, both of them latching on to her arms.

“Aww, c’mon! We were only teasing! Don’t go all pissed off like that! Besides, that twisty-spinning-thingy you did was fuckin’ cool! I wanna know how to do that!”

“YES, I AGREE! I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW THAT MOVE! PLEASE STAY AND TEACH US, HUMAN!!”

June glared at both of them, but it lacked any real heat. She was annoyed and frustrated, sure, but not really angry. Looking at their awe-struck faces (in Sans’ case, with literal stars in his eyes), June felt even more of her negativity fade, until she eventually sighed, caving.

“Fine…” she grumbled, watching their faces light up with glee. “But either of you pull that shit again, I’m not teaching anybody jack shit. Got it?”

They both nodded eagerly, pulling June back down the hall past a surprised looking Papyrus. (Funny…hadn’t she only heard _two_ sets of footsteps? When had he walked up?)

“So, now that we’ve got the whole thing of your LV settled, you’ve gotta explain the rest of your Stats to us,” Alphys said seriously, going over to the machine and tapping the display to bring up the last thing scanned again.

“What else is there?” the ravenette sighed with a frown.

“HP, AT, and DF. Here, take a look.”

June shuffled over and bent down a little to better make out the numbers on the display. Her brow furrowed as she read them.

**LV 2**   
**HP 2250/2250**   
**AT 150 (0) EXP: 0**   
**DF 75 (0) NEXT: ???**

She leaned back, feeling lost again. It seemed to be a common theme today.

“I don’t get it. Are those high? And what’s up with that thing, ‘next’? And why are there numbers in parenthesis?”

“Next is how many more kills it’ll take to get you to the next LV,” Alphys explained quickly, moving on without missing a beat. “The parenthesis mark the boosts you get from the current weapon and armor you have equipped. Which DON’T MATTER right now because you DON’T HAVE ANYTHING EQUIPPED. That’s what the zero means. And how the hell do you NOT know about this already?!”

“I don’t have friends, remember?” June deadpanned. “Especially monster friends who would know shit like this.”

“Oh. Right. ANYWAY. Even for someone with an LV higher than one, your Stats are crazy high. Like, anything above fifty is strong for a monster when it comes to AT and DF. YEAH, I KNOW,” the reptile added to June’s incredulous look. “And literally the only person who has HP that high is Toriel. And technically, hers is higher than that.”

“Shit…what the hell?” June muttered, running a hand through her hair.

“THAT’S WHAT I WANNA KNOW!!”

“Well I can’t explain it! I legit don’t know any more than you do right now. I mean, maybe my AT – if I’m right in assuming it means my attack and general strength – maybe that’s so high because of my martial arts training? I mean, I’m one hell of a fighter, there’s no question about that. Which could explain why my DF – again, assuming it refers to my defensive ability – is half my AT. I’m more offensive than defensive. I’m pretty aggressive, and I don’t back down from much. I live to overcome the challenges placed before me, which has made me pretty damn tough. I guess that might have more to do with the HP, though, if we’re talking about stamina and toughness. I dunno, I have no idea what I’m talking about. Don’t listen to anything I say,” she sighed, waving her hand dismissively. Alphys shook her head.

“No, no…I think you’re on to something. And you’re right – AT is attack and DF is defense. And HP does have to do with your stamina, as well as your ability to take hits. Really, it counts how many hits you can take. In battle, when you Check someone, their Stats appear as ATK and DEF, instead of AT and DF. They mean the same, though. But some people speculate that ATK, DEF, and HP are actually acronyms as well.”

“For what?”

“Ability to kill, death evasion factor, and hope.”

June blinked, her face reverting back to something blank.

“What.” Again, she deadpanned the word so hard, it wasn’t even intoned like a question. Alphys frowned and sighed.

“Yeah…but really, all you need to know is what I already told you. So, your AT is one-fucking-fifty. You think that has to do with your martial arts skills?”

“Yeah. I mean, like I said, I know every form of martial arts known to man. Not to mention I can improvise some of my dancing and gymnastics skills into my fighting style as needed. As May pointed out…fighting is all I know. She likes to compare me to a samurai without a master,” June added with a shake of her head. Alphys seemed to think on that.

“Actually, that kinda sounds about right. A protector without anything to protect,” she nodded. June just tilted her head to the side in confusion.

“Huh?”

“i’m guessing she’s pulling that from anime. talking about your archetype or something. just ignore it,” Papyrus answered for the reptile. June made a small noise of understanding (despite her expression reading that she clearly didn’t), then turned back to Alphys.

“Anyway, back to my Stats?”

“Right. No, what you’re saying does make sense. If you’re a natural born warrior type, then it makes sense that your AT is so high, especially when you know so many different methods and techniques and forms and styles of fighting. Now, your DF is high, too, even though it’s only half of your AT. You think it’s halved because you’re more offense than defense?”

“Yeah. Like I said, I’m aggressive. I don’t back down from a challenge. In a fight, I might send my opponent running with their tail between their legs, but I don’t walk away unscathed. I tend to get pretty nicked and dinged up along the way, too. Usually nothing too major, but enough for May to worry. Little worry-wart she is.”

Alphys nodded, but examined the numbers again.

“That still doesn’t explain why it’s so high in the first place…”

June just shrugged.

“Maybe because I can use my offensive moves to defend myself? I dunno, beats the hell outta me.”

“Huh. That would make sense, actually. And your HP?”

“I have ridiculously high stamina and endurance. All the physical training and exercise I’ve done over the years has really toughened me up in that regard. Like, most people who find this out the hard way – since we can’t look at each other’s Stats – are astonished at just all what I can handle in one go. Oh, and I just thought of a couple other things. Because of all the training and shit I’ve done, I’m physically stronger than your average human. That could affect my AT. And my DF could be affected by my stupid high pain tolerance. Or my HP. I’m not sure which.”

“Hmm…I see what you mean for your AT, but I think the pain tolerance thing would more affect your HP than your DF. And what do you mean by you have high stamina and endurance?”

“Like, I could probably enter a triathlon and only be a little winded by the end.”

Alphys gave her a confused look.

“A triathlon is where people race each other in three different physical competitions back to back to back – a flat out foot race, a swimming race, and a biking race. I think it’s in that order, too, but I could be wrong. Either way, most people who compete spend months or even years preparing, just because they are so physically demanding.”

Now the reptilian woman looked very interested, like she was itching to go look it up and find out where to join one. She seemed like a pretty competitive type. June could appreciate that.

“AND YOU COULD PARTICIPATE IN ONE OF THESE…TRIATHLONS WITHOUT IT BEING PHYSICALLY DEMANDING OF YOU?”

“Yep. Basically. Or at least, less demanding than it would be for most other humans.”

“WOWIE! IT IS SURPRISING THAT SOMEONE AS STRONG AS YOU DOES NOT HAVE A MORE IMPORTANT POSITION THAN A STORE CLERK!”

June tried to mask a wince. He clearly didn’t mean it, but…way to twist the knife, little guy. Alphys and Papyrus flinched as well, shooting the innocent little skelly looks.

“Well…not everyone values my, er…varied set of skills. Besides, I’m kind of a nobody. I keep quiet, keep my head down, keep my distance…so no one notices me much. Unless I’m trying to draw attention to myself, or I just quit giving a shit. Then I stand out like a sore thumb…”

“all those…pictures all over you,” Papyrus added with a sweeping look over her person, “i can’t say i’m surprised. anyone would stand out looking like that.”

“You have no idea,” June snorted in return, folding her arms across her chest. Alphys actually poked one of the flowers on the vine twisted around her arm curiously.

“What are they, anyway? And why haven’t I seen more humans with these on them?”

“They’re called tattoos. And thing is, a surprising number of people actually have tattoos. But most humans get them when they’re ‘young and stupid’ and get them in places where they can be easily hidden. Me, I’m proud of ‘em. Makes it that much harder for me to get a decent job, but there’s no way in hell I’d ever get these babies removed.”

(Not that she could if she wanted to, but that was why she was so careful about what she inked herself with. Not that they needed to know that.)

“HOW DO YOU GET A ‘TATTOO’?”

“Uh, well…you go to a tattoo parlor or call the place you wanna get it done and schedule a time to go in. Generally, you work out the other details, too, but not super important to this explanation. Anyway, so when you get there, you sit down in the chair – or lay down, depending on where you’re getting your tattoo – and you have to sit still while the artist does your ink. Um, by that, I mean, they take this thing called a tattoo gun, and…well, it’s got a needle on it. And it moves really fast. And what it does is it stabs you and leaves behind the ink you want for the tattoo. It can be pretty harmful and painful for some humans, so not really something I recommend for monsters.”

The three monsters flinched back away from her, seeming shocked by the very idea.

“WHY WOULD YOU PURPOSELY HARM YOURSELF FOR A PICTURE ON YOUR SKIN?!”

“It’s not…it’s not like people do it for the express purpose of the pain. Well, some do, I guess, but most people don’t. But everyone’s got there reasons for inking up, and they’re not all the same. Some just want it for looks. Some want it to send a message, or make a statement. Some do it to rebel. Then you’ve got the handful like me, I suppose. The ones that take it as another form of art and self-expression. The ones who feel stronger, more beautiful…the ones who feel _normal_ with a ton of tattoos. The ones who do it with a purpose.”

When June finally trailed off, Papyrus hesitated before asking, “so then…what’s your purpose?”

June paused, thinking on whether or not she really wanted to share that information. Well, since she’d already dug herself this deep in the emotional hole…

“I have multiple reasons. Part of it is the other stuff I mentioned. To me, it really is another form of art and self-expression. And this is the ultimate way for me to show my skill. But part of it was also to cover my scars.

“When I looked at them…when I looked at myself, with all my scars…I felt ugly. And I’m not saying that I think scars themselves are ugly. On the right person, scars can be something beautiful and sexy. But when I saw my own, I didn’t feel that way. And tattoos were something I admired on others. I thought they made other people look strong and tough and beautiful and confident. And I wanted to be like that. I wanted to feel that way. So I practiced and practiced until I started making designs I liked, and I got them inked over my scars. With them covered, I felt…well, it wasn’t all that I’d hoped for, but I did feel better once I couldn’t see them as easily anymore. Eventually, I managed to cover the majority of them, and over time, I learned how to overlook my physical appearance the same way I did others’. Once I did, I finally started to feel beautiful and confident like I’d wanted.”

After a brief pause, June wrapped an arm around herself and curled her hair behind her ear, a soft laugh slipping past her lips. When Alphys questioned what she was laughing at, June just kept her eyes on the floor, smiling faintly to herself.

“’s just funny…I’ve never told anyone that before. I’ve never felt comfortable enough around anyone to tell them that. But it actually feels kind of… _good_ …to get it off my chest. Heh…”

June shook her head, refocusing on Alphys.

“Uh, anyway, we got seriously sidetracked. So, this whole me joining you in sparring thing…I’m actually not totally convinced that it’s such a good idea anymore.”

“WHAT?!” Alphys barked, puffing up in anger. “Why NOT?!”

“Because of how high my Stats are? I mean, as strong as I am, I don’t want to accidentally hurt you guys.”

“Then you won’t! Look, with stuff like this, it all comes down to intent. If you’re not intending to harm us, you won’t. If you do wanna hurt us, you will. SIMPLE. So don’t go using your stupid fucking Stats as an excuse to chicken out now!”

The more distant expression on June’s face instantly disappeared as life and fire sparked in her piercing dark eyes.

“I am _not_ chickening out,” she snapped, bristling at being called a coward. Alphys grinned almost evilly, her pointed teeth glimmering in the light.

“Then PROVE IT, punk.”

June seemed to struggle with herself for a minute, but finally straightened herself to her full height, lifting her chin with her jaw set. In her eyes, raw fiery passion crossed cold analytical intelligence, and with her head proudly held high, she looked every bit the warrior, the protector…the hero she was.

Tossing her jacket aside dramatically, she leveled a stony look at the former captain of the Royal Guard and half purred/half growled, “I intend to.”

Without missing a beat, June shifted her stance so that she had one foot behind her and was rolled up onto the balls of her feet, knees slightly bent. This was a position from which she could spring to either an offensive maneuver or a defensive one, making it ideal for a fighter who allowed their opponent to make the first move. Lesson one she had learned early on from the years she spent fighting: avoid showing your hand first. When lacking the element of surprise, it was foolish to make the first move unless you were absolutely sure you could land your strike with significant enough effect to lower the risk of a counter. And though Alphys, short and stocky that she was, looked like she might be a slower opponent, June wasn’t willing to chance the reptile catching her off guard.

Alphys chuckled lowly, and as the air grew thick with tension, it also grew thick with….shit, _magic,_ the ravenette realized a split second before a battle axe appeared in the yellow monster’s hands.

“YOU’D BETTER, PUNK!!!” she roared before launching towards June, swiping the axe with incredible speed.

The girl narrowly avoided getting sliced as she _Matrix_ dodged that shit (what could she say, the science behind the series was intriguing), shifting her center of balance to flip backwards into a handstand and kicking at Alphys’ hands as she did.

Another lesson: when unarmed, always attempt to even the playing field in any way possible – especially if you could disarm your opponent. And since June was going to purposely handicap herself anyway by not using her own powers as a mage…

The magical battle axe went flying, but faded out of existence a moment later as June righted herself, flipping back to her feet a safe distance from the reptilian. She smirked at the incredulous look on both Alphys’ face and Sans’ before the monster woman turned to Sans, looking determined.

“Back me up here, squirt!!”

That seemed to snap Sans out of his surprised daze, as he began gathering magic as well, a bone materializing in his hand a second later as he advanced.

“R-RIGHT! OF COURSE, CAPTAIN!!”

Sans, surprisingly enough, moved even faster than Alphys, swinging his bone so quickly that June felt the disturbance in the air as she only just dodged it. Thinking on her feet after swinging her hips out of the way of his swipe, June leapfrogged over Sans, kicking him in the rear as she came back down. She only did it to knock him off balance for a moment as she dove at Alphys, the short female grunting in surprise as June barreled right into the flat edge of her magic battle axe as she re-summoned it to her hands. To his credit, the small skeleton tried to recover quickly, turning as he stumbled and throwing his weapon at June. However, June was able to leap out of the way by rebounding off Alphys’ axe and into the air, forcing the reptilian monster to block the bone as it hurtled towards her.

“Hey!!” she roared, momentarily distracted. “Whose SIDE are you ON?!”

“SORRY, ALPHYS!!” Sans cried, his eyes trained on June as he summoned another bone. “I WAS NOT AIMING FOR YOU!!”

June was more than happy to take the opportunity presented to her with Alphys distracted, landing gracefully behind Alphys and spinning around quickly to strike the monster in the shoulder with two fingers. A technique she had picked up after watching _Avatar: The Last Airbender_ (and subsequently looking up all the different martial arts forms used in the show), the temporary paralyzing effects of nailing a pressure point on the human body was a tactic she used often. Really, she had gone for the blow purely on instinct, not knowing if it would even work on a monster, since their bodies functioned differently. When Alphys stumbled forward a step and her arm went limp at her side, however, June was pleasantly surprised with the result.

**_!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!_ **

Having landed the one successful strike, June dove to one side and tumble-rolled away from the yellow reptile, just in time for her to growl and swing her axe one-handed where the girl had just been. Like an angry bull, Alphys prepared to charge, and Sans was clearly trying to wall June in so Alphys could get to her. The ex-gymnast, however, would not be so easily contained. Waiting for Alphys to draw close, she again leapfrogged over the shorter monster, allowing her to crash into the wall of bones Sans had summoned to contain the ravenette. Before crashing, however, Alphys was quick enough to slice her axe through the air behind her as June moved past, finally landing the first blow to her. June cried out as the axe slashed her back, knocking off her balance and sending her sprawling on the floor. Not even a full second later, she could feel the blood from the wound soaking her tank top. Alphys may have only grazed her, really, but the injury was still a large one, and June struggled to get up for a split second. But ever the stubborn creature she was, she gritted her teeth and managed to scramble out of the way of Alphys’ axe as she swung it down, a blow that would have killed her had it landed. A flash of fear shot through her as the adrenaline finally kicked in and she got to her feet.

**_!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!_ **

“What the hell?!” she screeched, backing away from the other female. “Are you _trying_ to kill me?!”

The ex-captain’s manic grin faded as June yelled at her, seeming to shake off the bloodthirsty haze and refocus on June.

“Huh?”

June was about to remind her of the potentially fatal blow she’d almost landed when something hard connected with her the base of her skull, instead earning a squawk of pain from her before she collapsed to the ground, barely conscious. Stars and spots swam in her vision as she groaned and tried to move, her fingers and limbs only twitching in response. She could hear the three monsters’ voices as they shouted and freaked out over her, but she could no longer make out what they were saying. Her world faded to blackness shortly after.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Section Summary:** Once she landed her strike, June rolled away from Alphys to avoid taking damage from the swing Alphys performed. Alphys then charged June like a bull, with Sans attempting to box June in and make it easier on Alphys. June, having no part of that, leapfrogged over Alphys once she was close enough, intending to let her crash into the wall of bones Sans had summoned. Alphys was a bit too quick, however, and managed to graze June's back with her battleaxe. The blow making her land wrong, June wound up flat on the floor and struggling to get up. Though not too deep, the wound was large, and it made it difficult to move. Move, June did, however - and a good thing, as Alphys would have killed her with the next strike.
> 
> Phew! Another long one in the bag. I don't have much to say this time...except that, if anyone wants to leave me a question or comment but you don't wanna leave it in the comments here, my Tumblr for that very thing is [here](http://singingdreamwritesstuff.tumblr.com/). Now, With that out of the way, I hope you guys enjoyed this one, and see you next week for more.


	4. Chapter 4

When her consciousness roused moments later, everything was still dark. She tried to look around, but couldn’t tell if she was even moving her head from the lack of a difference it made. Everything was this stifling, all-encompassing darkness. And surprisingly enough, she knew this place. It was the Void (aptly named, she’d realized once she learned what it was called), and while it could easily drive one insane from the sensory deprivation of being surrounded by a literal void (and it almost had the first time she’d been here), she had come to know this little pocket of nothingness well. It was relatively safe and welcoming…mostly because it was inhabited by the only person June really counted as a friend: the mysterious, cheerful, hyperactive, yet always friendly voice of a man she had affectionately started calling “Hands”. (He refused to give her his name, but he had told her of the many titles he had, including “the man who speaks in hands”. She had latched on to the idea of giving him a nickname after one of these titles. Hence, “Hands”.)

After a moment or two of silence, June wondered if Hands knew she was here. Then, as she began to wonder why she was here herself, she heard him speak up.

“Oh! Hello, dear! I didn’t sense you right away.”

June smiled as she tucked the thoughts away for later, glad to hear from him.

“Hey, Hands. Good to hear from you.”

“And you as well, my dear!” replied her chipper companion, his tone puzzled when he next spoke. “Though, I have to wonder what brought you here. I didn’t sense any disturbances this time, and you are very calm and lucid.”

Hands was, of course, referring to why June visited this dark place frequently. She unfortunately suffered from undiagnosed PTSD, which left her wide open to horrifying nightmares and crippling panic attacks when she awoke. Many times, her mind would retreat to the Void to escape…though the nightmares had a way of following her, so Hands would have to chase them away for her. When her nightmares would bring her to this dark little patch of nothing, it would create some sort of disturbance in the Void, which Hands had warned her would attract unwanted attention to her existence in this place where she should not exist.

And thus, this was their relationship: he would save her from her nightmares, and she would keep him company for as long as her mind would allow. After all, that was all he wanted from her, and she was more than happy to oblige. But that still left a big question – she hadn’t been asleep before she’d entered this time. So why was she in the Void?

“That’s because I wasn’t dreaming, Hands,” June explained. “I was sparring with some new…it’s weird to call them friends yet, but it’s more than friendly acquaintances…whatever. Anyway, three of the four of us were sparring, and one of them basically tried to cut me in half with a magic battle axe.”

“ _What?!_ Goodness gracious! Why on earth would they do that?!”

“I’m not sure. I tried to ask her, but she didn’t even seem to realize she’d tried to kill me. Oh, and because the whole magic battle axe thing makes it kind of vague, she’s a monster.”

(After monsters had come to the surface and June had shared that knowledge with Hands, he revealed that he himself was a monster. This had come as a surprise, but June being who she was, she took it right in stride, begging him to tell her more. He’d mostly obliged, but there were lines he didn’t want to cross, and June had respected that. Which was why there was much she didn’t actually know still about monsters.)

“Oh! Anyone I would know?”

“Not sure. You remember a yellow reptilian woman by the name of Alphys? Might have been captain of the Royal Guard? Whatever that means, because no one has bothered explaining it yet…”

“It means she was the leader of the guards overseen by the queen of the monsters herself. But the captain was different before I came here…I’m afraid I don’t know this girl. A shame, really. Ah, well. But you say she didn’t seem aware of her actions?”

“That’s right. She seemed to like…shake off whatever it was that possessed her to try to slice and dice me. But I passed out – no, I was _knocked_ out. I was so focused on her that I didn’t think about the other combatant behind me…sneaky little skeleton…”

“I beg your pardon?”

“Huh? Oh, yeah, the other monster sparring with us. His name is Sans. He’s a short skeleton monster with big blue lights in his eye sockets, and they form literal stars when he’s happy or excited. He’s…kind of cute and precious, like May…but also sneaky and clever, evidently – just like May…it’s weird how similar they are, actually.”

There was a pause, and June wasn’t sure for a moment if Hands was even still there. He had no reason to just leave her like that, but something she’d said had made him go silent…

“Was there…was there a second skeleton monster with him?” Hands finally asked, sounding hopeful.

“Yeah, actually. His brother, Papyrus. Dude’s actually taller than me, I’m pretty sure. And he’s real laid back and chill…sort of. He was real suspicious of me at first, but he kinda cooled his jets when we started talking about my Stats and the possible reasons they are what they are.”

There was another pause, but this one was much shorter.

“I’m actually very excited right now,” the giddy monster explained, sounding like he was trying to contain himself, “but I’m… _phew,_ I’m trying to focus right now. You mentioned your Stats, dear? What about them? Why would Papyrus be suspicious of you?”

“Beyond the fact that my LV is two? I haven’t the faintest,” she answered, getting a surprised gasp from her companion. “Yeah, that was the general reaction. But long story short, you remember what I told you about my dad? How he died?”

“Yes, the fireball you conjured and subsequent house fire. I recall.”

“Turns out it raised my LV, but didn’t affect my EXP for some reason. I can’t explain it, but…that’s all I can think of for why it’d be higher than one.”

“Hmm…yes, that’d make sense…after all, you’ve been so careful about your magic and abilities ever since…I can see what you mean, dear.”

June tried to nod, forgetting for a moment the motion probably won’t be seen, and she can’t even feel if she’s moving. That part was always so disconcerting…

“Anyway, so I kind of forgot Sans was sparring with me and Alphys, and…I turned my back on him. Big mistake. He got me at the base of my skull. Knocked me out almost instantly.”

Hands made an appropriate noise of sympathy, and she could almost imagine him wincing. (She had always tried to imagine what he looked like, and long before discovering he wasn’t human, she had doodled what she imagined his likeness to be. Now, she took it more as if she were imagining him if he were human.)

“Yeah, really shouldn’t have taken them both on at once. Learned my lesson. _Ouch._ ”

“Indeed, sweetie. Now, if I might ask about your Stats…I’m a bit curious about them.”

“As long as I get to ask why you’re so excited to hear about Sans and Papyrus.”

Hands paused, but eventually consented. June then explained to him about her abnormally high Stats (and her reluctance over sparring with the monsters after finding out about them), in turn asking what had him so excited about the two skeleton monsters. Her cheerful companion, ever the enigma, only told her that he knew them from before he came to the Void.

“Oh. So then, should I tell them you say hello when I wake up?”

“No! No, that’s…probably not a good idea, dear,” Hands recovered quickly, but the slip-up didn’t go unnoticed.

“Wait, hold up. You’re pumped to hear about them, but you don’t want me to say anything to them? Why?”

“Well, quite frankly, dear…if you tell them about me, you’ll have to tell them about your visits to the Void, and…the Void has a way of alarming people. Especially those that actually understand what it is, like Papyrus.”

“Oh. Yeah, no, I see what you’re getting at now,” June grimaced at herself. “That would be a pretty bad idea. And hell, I don’t even tell May about our little visits. There is absolutely no reason for me to bring it up with these people I only just met today.”

“Oh! You know, June, that reminds me…how long has it been since your last visit? You know how time is in here…”

June did know – time was an odd thing in the Void. At times, it was like eons could pass in the blink of an eye. Other times, it was like a minute took centuries to pass. Due to this almost fickle way time behaved in the Void, it took someone like June to actually make sense of the passing time via the outside world.

“It’s actually been…god, maybe three months?”

“Goodness! Is that a new record?” Hands exclaimed, pleased she had managed to stay away for so long.

“Not quite. There was the one time I didn’t show up for five, remember?”

(Just as the last words slipped off her lips, June swore she felt something faintly tugging at her Soul. The feeling confused her, but she chose to ignore it. It was probably nothing…right?)

“Oh…now that you mention it, I do recall that. I was so torn that time on how to feel when you did arrive again…”

June attempted to shrug, another futile effort here in the Void.

“Can’t say that I blame you. After all, this place is hazardous for my health…but it’d get pretty lonely in here all by yourself.”

“Quite. But as long as I stay positive that one day, I’ll get out of here, I can’t get too down in the dumps!~”

June chuckled, glad for Hands’ ability to be so optimistic in such a bleak situation. The next second however, she groaned, feeling something tugging again at the core of her being, much stronger than the first time.

“June, dear?” Hands called, worried.

“Something’s…something’s calling me…I feel it in my Soul…I think I’m about to wake up…” she answered, feeling the pull once more as she felt her consciousness begin to ebb again.

“Oh, dear! Ah, what should I…? Oh, I suppose there isn’t anything I _can_ do…I’m sorry, June! Good luck!”

June tried to reassure the monster, but all that came out was a nonsensical groan as her mind made the transition back to reality.

As she came to, June continued to feel that odd tugging coming from her Soul, and she moaned as she struggled to get her senses back in working order. First to come back was hearing.

“K-keep it up, Papyrus! She’s coming t-to!”

“i’d think that’s a reason to _stop._ ”

“BUT IT’S WORKING, BROTHER! I AGREE WITH UNDYNE! KEEP GOING!!”

Papyrus sighed, then June felt the pull again, this one the strongest yet. What one earth was…? Wait, was he –

Realizing what Papyrus was trying to do, June forced her eyes open in time to gasp and flinch as her Soul was forcibly removed from her chest. When June got her eyes open again, she could see the four monsters staring at the little damaged cartoon heart that floated in front of her, the five of them bathed in hues of bright orange and soft blue.

Shit. June had been hoping to avoid this. Now they would know for sure that she wasn’t a normal human. Normal humans only had one color to their Souls, and despite the fact that some mages had one color to their Souls as well, all the truly powerful mages had at least two. (Though there hadn’t been a documented case of a mage having more than two colors to their Soul, June wouldn’t rule it out as an eventual possibility.) And the more complimentary the colors of the Soul, the stronger the mage. Which was why June was as ridiculously powerful as she was – her two colors, orange and blue for courage and integrity, was one of the most complimentary sets one could get.

But as panic began to set in for her, it was as if the moment had been broken by Papyrus’ sigh.

“damn. that was a lot harder than it should have been…”

“It doesn’t normally take that many tries to draw out a Soul…that’s fuckin’ weird!”

“I MUST AGREE. THOUGH…WHAT STRIKES ME AS MORE ODD IS THE FACT THAT IT HAS TWO COLORS – AND IT IS SO DAMAGED! I DO NOT KNOW THAT I HAVE SEEN A SOUL WITH THIS MUCH DAMAGE TO IT BEFORE!”

…did…did they not realize she was awake? Were they all so focused on her Soul that they just hadn’t noticed? (And when the fuck had Undyne gotten here?)

“Yeah, and I’d kindly ask you to _put it the fuck back,_ ” she growled, getting all of their attentions. All of them instantly blushed (if the orange tint to Papyrus’ cheekbones and the matching dusting of baby blue on Sans’ was their version of blushing), but Undyne stayed Papyrus’ hand from returning the little heart to its proper place. Instead, she got up from where she was kneeling on the floor and shuffled closer.

“Um, actually, June, i-if you don’t mind…could I take a minute to…s-study your S-Soul?”

June looked at her incredulously, a little shocked she’d ask something so personal. Undyne, clearly understanding the problem, got even more flustered, but bowled on anyway.

“I-i-it’s just that…w-we’ve never seen a Soul with t-two c-colors before, a-a-and it’d really help my research, s-since I study Souls for a l-living…a-and, um…i-it’d help to have another S-Soul for the data I’m missing from the r-research I was already d-doing…”

June hesitated, not liking this one bit. So far, it seemed none of them realized she was a mage, but she had a bad feeling. And if there was one thing June trusted above even her own sister, it was her instincts. She couldn’t count how many times trusting her gut had gotten her out of (or helped her avoid altogether) more scrapes than she could even remember. She wasn’t about to start disregarding it now.

But if she outright refused, would they be suspicious as to why? Then again, the fact that she’d already accidentally revealed that she knew enough about Souls to know what it was Undyne was asking of her – or what the damaged little thing in front of her was to begin with – was suspicious enough as it was. She was stuck between a rock and a hard place.

But before she could render a decision, Papyrus placed a hand over his chest with a confused expression. At the same time, June felt a stirring in her Soul, as if it were reaching out for something. (What the hell was wrong with her damn Soul today…? Oh well, fuck it – distraction!)

“Something wrong, Papyrus?” she asked, quickly diverting the attention away from herself. All eyes went to the tall skeleton, but he shook his head.

“nah. don’t think so, anyway. but forget me. you were about to give undyne –”

He cut himself off as he again clutched at the fabric of his hoodie over his sternum, a look of surprise and confusion on his face. June sucked in a sharp breath, making a face as she again felt her Soul reaching for something – no, not just reaching. _Calling._ Her Soul was calling out for something, and it was trying to draw that something to it, each pull stronger than the last. The other three monsters looked between June and Papyrus, looking alarmed.

“W-What on earth…?”

“The hell is wrong with you guys?”

“BROTHER? HUMAN? SHOULD WE BE WORRIED?!”

Rather than answer, Papyrus huffed and muttered something under his breath that June couldn’t hear. June herself was very much done with whatever the hell was going on, and decided, fuck it. She could deal with the consequences of doing this in front of them later. She quickly reached out and cupped her Soul, trying to ignore the odd sensation of holding it herself, and tried to put it back in her chest.

But just as June attempted this, it made a final call, pulling desperately on whatever it was it was reaching so damn hard for, making her gasp with a small noise, freezing in place and shivering. At the same time, she heard Papyrus grunt just before her Soul floated free from her hands of its own accord. When she glanced up in surprise, she was even more shocked to see…another Soul floating in the open air. This one was white, but it glowed orange at the edges – a darker shade than her own orange – and it was easily as damaged as hers…and this little heart was inverted, its point facing the ceiling.

June stared, losing track of her own still exposed Soul long enough for it to float back down into her field of vision a little. Her eyes snapped to it, only to whip back to the second Soul as it floated higher, responding to hers. Her Soul called again, much more softly than before, but still enough to get a small shiver out of her as her dual colors pulsed brighter with the call. The second Soul pulsed brighter in response, and June could feel it answering the call.

As the two Souls spun and pulsed in the air together, June felt her own highly mixed emotions become heightened as they began pulsing in time with each other. Wait, no…heightened wasn’t right…it was something else. But it wasn’t something she could put a name to right then. What on earth was going on…?

Finally, the pair of Souls ended their odd dance by bumping into each other a few times, sending tremors through June so strong, she had to grip the couch she was sitting on for support. When they separated, there was…what looked like a strand of pure magic connecting them. It stretched as the two Souls floated back down to their hosts, but did not break or get any thinner. June watched as her Soul finally sank back into her chest on its own, glancing up to see whose Soul it was that was reacting to hers – and felt her blood go cold for a second as her heart seemed to forget how to beat.

Because the thread of magic connecting the two Souls, slowly turning invisible now that said Souls were no longer exposed, was stretched between her and Papyrus.

There was a long pause as everyone seemed to process what just happened. June was the first one to speak, still stunned.

“What…the fuck… _was_ that?”

Undyne turned to June, her eyes wide and awestruck.

“That…th-that was…your Souls…”

“what the actual fuck?”

“What?” the ravenette demanded, turning to the tall skeleton now. Someone was going to answer her, dammit!

“Your Souls…holy shit…” Alphys muttered.

“ _What?_ Would someone please tell me what the fuck just happened? The human is very fucking confused!”

“YOU’RE…” Sans started, staring at his brother, voice the softest she’d heard it yet. “YOU’RE BONDED…I HAVE NEVER SEEN SOULS BOND BEFORE…”

June again felt her heart skip at this. Bonded? That sounded familiar, though the memory was vague…something to do with her godmother and god-brother, both of whom were mages like her and May. It couldn’t be a mage thing, not when whatever it was had just happened to her with a monster. But a magic thing? Most definitely. But where had she heard that term before?

“Bonded? What?” she whispered, still valiantly searching her mind for a meaning.

“it…it means our fates are tied together in some way. we’re supposed to be in each other’s lives, for better or worse. that thread of magic won’t break until we’ve crossed whatever bridge it is that we’re supposed to cross. until then…we’re stuck together.”

June blinked. After hearing that, she remembered where she’d heard about bonding before. Celest, her godmother, had told her about it. When one Soul of the pair was drawn out around the other person in the pair, or both Souls were out, the two would react to each other. How they reacted depended upon the connection between the two – if they bumped each other in a rough or violent way, then the connection was a negative one, meaning some sort of rivalry or enemies type of deal. If they were calmer and barely touched at all during the bonding process, then the connection was more like friends or allies. But if the two Souls had a lot of contact and moved in a more sensual way, then the connection was a deep one…one that meant the lives of the two involved were intertwined from that moment on.

Celest had explained that the stories of Souls bonding were mostly rumor, since no human or mage had ever had it happen, but evidently it was far more common for monsters. Then again, monsters were more free (and more intimate) with their Souls than a human could be – or a mage ever would be. And worse still, the last way that Souls could be connected – due to the vagueness of the rumor – was very open to interpretation. June had always wondered what it meant, to be tied to someone else for the rest of your life. Was it anything like getting married, or a Soul mate sort of thing? May had always hoped so (ever the romantic she was), but there was no way June wanted any part of that. She preferred to have control of her own fate, love life, and connections, not have them tied to someone else – thank you very much!

“Fuck…” June hissed, frustration and confusion mingling as one. Why her? Why Papyrus? She had no problems with monsters, but she didn’t want to be bonded to one for fuck’s sake!

It took her a minute, but when she realized the confusion wasn’t her own and it was getting stronger, she glanced to Papyrus. She forgot that one part of being bonded meant that, dependent on the type of connection between the two people, the partners could feel each other’s emotions. Not enough to understand why – it wasn’t like telepathy, where one could follow the connection back to what was causing the emotion – but enough to tell one partner what was going on with the other.

“so it’s true – i can feel what you do. and you’re frustrated about something…”

“Yeah, and you’re pretty damn confused about it.”

The foreign sense of confusion morphed to curiosity, with a healthy dose of caution and suspicion.

“sharing is caring, sister.”

“Hell no. I’ve done enough sharing today. I hate that touchy-feely emotional bullshit on fuckin’ soap operas and shit. You want me to open up to you – work for it. _Earn it,_ fucker.”

Now his frustration matched hers, but his was tempered with annoyance…and a dash of understanding, oddly enough. Still, June refused to let her guard down. She was a mage bonded to a monster who didn’t know she was a mage. This could get very bad very fast if she wasn’t careful.

“…fair enough,” Papyrus finally conceited, though June could feel that he wasn’t letting this go so easy. June settled back into the couch with a shake of her head, crossing her arms over her chest. When she finally sighed and ran a hand through her long hair, a sudden weariness shot through her. This had to be the craziest day she’d ever had – losing her job, gaining some new…friends, acquaintances, things…the prospect of a new job, finally making a stand with her opinions on monsters, finding out her Stats, sharing part of her storied past for the first time, seeing her friend in the Void (for some reason), and now her Soul was bonded. After all that, a little peace and quiet sounded really nice right about now…

June sighed again and buried her feelings, turning her attention to Alphys.

“So, hey – what was all that about in your training room?”

Alphys blinked, then winced.

“Fuck, I forgot we started sparring in the training room…”

“Again? A-Alphys, baby…”

“I know, I know…sorry, Undyne. But you didn’t see her Stats! I got so excited to test myself against a human as strong as she is, I just…”

“W-wait. Her Stats? W-what are they? I-i-if you don’t mind me p-prying, June…”

“No, no. It’s fine. It’s only fair you guys know that sort of thing about me.”

June stifled the flash of almost-guilt she had for saying that without revealing her being a mage to them, hoping it was too fast for Papyrus to catch it. (From the confusion and suspicion she got in return, she guessed not. Damn.) As much as she didn’t want to hide it, it was better and safer for both the girls not to reveal their more magical natures. Though a handful of mages had surfaced since monsters had come back to the surface, their reception was almost as bad as the monsters’, if not worse. May and June both knew this, and did everything in their power to keep their powers and magic a secret. (As she thought of this, the ravenette had to wonder if it was possible for those with bonded Souls to feel if one member of the pair used magic. It was something she realized she really didn’t want to test from her end.)

“They were crazy high!” Alphys broke into her thoughts, thankfully saving her from them. “AT one-fifty, DF seventy five, HP twenty two-fifty, EXP zero, LV two. Okay, so her LV wasn’t crazy high, and neither was her EXP, but still!”

Undyne’s eyes widened as Alphys recited June’s Stats, gasping at her LV. Now that she had context, she couldn’t say she was surprised.

“H-her LV is…?!”

“Yeah, I know. But it’s okay. Her reason is legit. Already asked and everything.”

That didn’t seem to reassure Undyne too much, so June sighed heavily.

“Alphys, you can tell her. I don’t care. It’s not a secret, or something I’m ashamed of. I just don’t talk about it…for reasons I’m sure you understand.”

The yellow monster nodded gravely, then turned and ushered Undyne to another room, whispering to her. This left the skeleton brothers with June, and no one seemed to want to say anything. At least, until a thought occurred to June.

“So when the hell did Undyne get here? Like, how long was I out?”

“AN HOUR AND A HALF, AT LEAST! POSSIBLY LONGER!” Sans answered. “UNDYNE ARRIVED AN HOUR AGO, HOWEVER.”

“Ah. So it wasn’t all that long this time…”

“what?”

“Never mind. It’s not a big deal.”

Papyrus was about to protest when June heard Undyne gasp from the other room, then she came rushing back in.

“J-June! I-is that t-true?! I mean, a-about your dad…”

“Yeah,” the ravenette sighed, casting her dark eyes away. “He was pretty awful. And I’m not saying that what I did was the right thing, but, well…if I could take it back, I wouldn’t.”

Undyne looked much more sympathetic now, and much less worried about being around a potentially dangerous human.

“hold up. what was that about –”

“No, you hold up. What was all that, anyway? Trying to draw my Soul out while I was unconscious?”

All four monsters cringed, their different blushes gracing their faces as they all looked anywhere that wasn’t at June.

“I-I…i-it was my idea…” Undyne finally made herself say. “I-I thought that maybe drawing it out w-would let us see if there was any l-lasting damage from you sparring with Sans a-and Alphys, and it just might wake you up…and I was right about one of them, at least!”

June sighed, clearly irritated. She had a feeling that the guilt and embarrassment coming from Papyrus was felt by all the monsters in the room.

“Maybe, but that still doesn’t excuse that you drew out my Soul without my consent. I appreciate that you were worried about me, but since my Soul wasn’t out while we sparred, the only damage to my person would be physical. Speaking of which…got anything for the cut across my back or the lump on the back of my head?”

Undyne nodded an affirmative and scurried out of the room while Alphys and Sans both turtled into themselves at her listing the injuries they’d inflicted on her. After a moment to let them stew in their own guilt, she sighed.

“I’m not mad, guys. Hell, I’ve gotten hurt worse than this plenty of times before for a lot less innocent reasons. I mostly just wanna know what the hell came over you two that possessed you to try to kill me.”

They both flinched, but they didn’t try to deny it, casting guilty looks her way.

“To be fair, I kinda just got really into it. I mean, you’re a hell of a fighter, punk! And I don’t say that to just anyone. And…truth be told, I don’t have the greatest reputation with humans. So it might have been me just going overboard and forgetting for a second that you’re a friend. Sorry.”

Alphys looked pretty ashamed of her actions, and June’s hard look at her softened until it read understanding and sympathy.

“Well, hey, no hard feelings, eh, Alphys? I mean, I did manage to disable your arm before you got me, so I’d say that’s something. Honestly wasn't sure that was gonna work. I just went for it out of instinct. But, uh…speaking of…how’s your arm now?”

“Huh? Oh! It’s totally fine! I don’t know what you did to it, but it’s working just fine now. Pretty risky move you did there, though, not knowing if your move was gonna work! You’ve got some real balls, sister!” Alphys laughed as Undyne came back in with an ice pack and a handful of…what appeared to be wrapped candies.

“H-here. These will help the cut, and th-this is for your head,” Undyne said softly, handing over the items. June flashed her a small smile, grateful.

“Thanks,” she murmured back, unwrapping a candy and popping it in her mouth before putting the ice pack to the back of her head gingerly. Once the taste of the candy hit her tongue, June hummed in surprise, actually tasting the magic in it. A split second later, she sighed, the healing properties in the monster food already starting to heal the slash on her back.

Undyne stood there after giving her the items for a moment, wringing her hands, until June took notice and sighed.

“If there’s something you want, Undyne, you’re gonna have to ask. I’m not a mind reader.”

(Well, she could be, but that was a concern for another time.)

“I-I was just, um…wondering i-if…I could examine the wound on your back?”

“Sure. Knock yourself out. The candy’s already healed it some, but if you still wanna take a look, be my guest,” she replied, turning around and moving her long hair out of the way, just in case. After a moment, it occurred to her to move her tank top out of the way, too, so she hiked it up in the back until the wound was clearly visible. She heard a few gasps, and surprise came from Papyrus.

“What?”

“that’s…a lot worse than you were leading us to believe.”

“No it’s not. Like I said, I’ve had worse. Like, cut all the way to the bone before. This is nothing.”

“wait, what?”

“Cut to the bone…? Is that supposed to be a skeleton pun or something?”

“Uh, no? Wait, did you guys not know that humans have skeletons inside us?”

From the looks on their faces, she’d say no, they didn’t.

“Dude, that’s like, human anatomy 101 or something. Okay, uh, Undyne. Do you have like an x-ray machine or anything?”

“Y-yeah, actually. I-it’s upstairs, though. Can you make it?”

“Shouldn’t be a problem,” June replied, wincing as she got to her feet. Her head was still pounding from where Sans got her, and the cut hurt from being stretched like that, but otherwise, she was fine. Still, she got a small wrinkle of worry from Papyrus, to which she sighed and started moving anyway.

“june, wait,” he sighed, putting a hand on her shoulder. She glanced up at him, partially irritated, partially curious.

“What?”

“you really shouldn’t be moving around. not with that injury. and before you protest any more, just…please humor me, alright?”

June stared at him long and hard before finally sighing.

“Fine. I don’t know what exactly you have planned to get me upstairs, but –” June cut herself off with an alarmed squeak as Papyrus scooped her up in his arms, making a bright red blush erupt across her cheeks. It wasn't often she was carried, and it usually wasn’t bridal style when she was.

“Wh-what the hell, Papyrus?!” she cried, watching him smirk at her reaction and chuckle. “Give a girl a little warning next time!”

“where’s the fun in that?”

“God, you’re an ass!”

“how can i be something i don’t even have?”

June’s blush intensified with how frustrated she was getting, but in the moment she growled at him for sassing her, she felt as if her stomach dropped, and she recognized it as that moment of weightlessness right before a body started falling. At the sensation, she gasped and held on tighter to him, but it passed as suddenly as it had started, and she looked at him in surprise, unsure of what had just happened.

“What was…?”

“hey, look. we’re here.”

She glanced around, seeing that they were indeed at the top of the stairs already, just as the others were making it to the top step.

“How did you…?”

“This way, Paps,” Undyne interrupted, not noticing the way June was looking at her skeletal escort, or the question she was asking. She actually let it slide, though, as they all filed into the room Undyne was pointing them to.

How had he done that? Just…been in one spot one minute, then magically moved to a different spot the next? She would have felt if he had used super speed. There was no mistaking the feeling of whiplash. So it wasn’t that…magic, then? With monsters, it was a real possibility. If so, then how? What magical ability could Papyrus possibly possess that allowed him to just…cease to exist from one location and begin to exist elsewhere? She thought it seemed a bit like teleporting, but she didn’t want to call it that. But what other explanation was there?

June was finally jolted out of her thoughts when Papyrus put her down in a chair, to which she murmured a distracted thank you.

“Okay, June. Are you r-ready?”

“Sure, Undyne. Hit me,” she added spreading her arms wide. Undyne smiled a giggled a little, swiveling a sort of screen or monitor in front of June.

“Old school x-ray machine, huh? Cool. Don’t see many like these anymore,” June commented, easily flowing back into her usual flirty, sassy self. Undyne nodded, smiling sheepishly before flicking it on.

She then stood back, observing with the others as the screen flickered to life. Once it presented them with a clear picture of June’s skeleton under her skin, Papyrus and Sans both instantly blushed furiously, Papyrus’ accompanied by a flurry of different emotions…chiefly, though, being turned on. June tilted her head in surprise and confusion. Why the hell would he - ?

The second it clicked in her head, she started blushing too. They were skeleton monsters. And this was basically them looking at her naked skeleton. And evidently, they found her skeleton to be very, _very_ attractive.

“Okay, Undyne. I think you can turn it off, now,” June said as coolly as possible, thoroughly embarrassed. But Alphys and Undyne didn’t seem to see the issue.

“Are you kidding?!” Alphys cried while Sans covered his eyes in the background. “This is fucking COOL! Who knew humans had so much in common with you guys, eh, nerds?”

“I agree,” Undyne breathed, taking notes now with a pen and some paper she’d found. “This is really fascinating! And it appears your bone structure is very different than that of a skeleton monster. Are the bones as hard as Sans’ and Papyrus’?”

“Um, how about we turn this thing off and I tell you?”

“Why?”

“Because it seems to be having an interesting effect on the skeleton monsters you seem so interested in comparing me to,” June said, pointing to the boys. Both Alphys and Undyne turned in confusion, but one look at the boys’ faces, and they seemed to understand the problem. Alphys just began roaring with raunchy laughter, while Undyne blushed profusely, hurriedly shutting down the machine.

“Guys, I am so sorry!” she squeaked with she fumbled with the machine. “I didn’t even think – I should have thought – I-I mean, I – I’m so, so, so, so, so sorry!”

When it was obvious Undyne wasn’t shutting it down fast enough, June sighed and stood, leaning over to hit the switches for her. From the sudden increase in how turned on he was, however, this seemed to be the wrong move, as in the next second, there was a loud _thump,_ and all eyes turned to find Papyrus had passed out on the floor.

Alphys ended up actually rolling across the floor herself, laughing her little yellow ass off, while Sans shouted his bother’s name and knelt next to him, June’s “indecency” completely forgotten. Undyne also rushed over, kneeling next to him, and once June was able to maneuver her way from behind the screen, she made her way over, the injury slowing her down. (Well, whatever it was Papyrus had done earlier, she was grateful for it now – it would have taken her ages to get up the stairs herself with this damn cut across her back.)

“You, uh, okay, there, big guy?”

He made some sort of noise, but it wasn’t really an intelligible answer. The only indication of what had even happened was a small trickle of blood coming from his nose indent. If she could have, June would have sweat-dropped.

“What even…?” Undyne asked, looking up at June. She blushed, scratching the end of her nose lightly.

“Uh, when I got up to help you shut it off? It was still on and working, so…I’m guessing he saw something he liked? I think? Fuck if I know…”

Undyne flushed again, giggling now.

“O-oh dear. Maybe we should, uh, l-leave him here for now, then.”

“Or throw his thirsty ass in a cold shower…” June muttered under her breath. Clearly she hadn’t spoken soft enough, though, as Undyne squeaked and blushed harder, laughing.

“What? It’s an idea!” June defended, despite a smile twitching at the corners of her lips.

“What? What’d I miss?” Alphys suddenly appeared by June’s shoulder, a broad grin stretched across her maw.

“June just suggested we, um…p-put Papyrus in a cold shower.”

“I believe my exact words were ‘throw his thirsty ass in a cold shower.’”

Alphys was now laughing so hard, she had tears in the corners of her eyes, and Sans blushed furiously as he turned on June.

“OH MY STARS!! REALLY?! IS THAT COMPLETELY NECESSARY?!”

June cringed, but it didn’t stop the shit-eating grin on her face.

“Heh, heh. Sorry, little guy. I swear like a sailor. Just can’t help it. But, uh, you got a better idea to cool him off? I’m all ears.”

Sans actually seemed to think on it…before a grin of his own formed, and he nodded.

“BETTER THAN A COLD SHOWER! BECAUSE IT’LL BE COLDER!!”

At this, Alphys and Undyne joined June in listening to Sans’ idea to wake up Papyrus, all of them grinning from ear to ear (or as much as was possible, in some cases) by the end. Then, Sans and Alphys worked together to haul Papyrus to the bathroom while June and Undyne prepared the prank. Once the tub was ready, the two smaller monsters teamed up again to literally toss Papyrus into the tub…filled with ice water.

As soon as the cold hit him, Papyrus surfaced in the water, flailing and screeching something unholy. In the next second, he was out of the tub and getting water everywhere, panting and shivering and glaring at the other four, laughing their asses off.

“Oh-oh my _god!_ ” June practically cackled, doubled over from laughing so hard. “That was fucking _fantastic!_ ”

Alphys and Undyne just continued to laugh, whatever words they tried to form incoherent. Sans was trying not to laugh behind his gloved hand and failing miserably. And with June standing the closest to Papyrus, it shouldn’t have been a surprise what happened next…

Without warning, Papyrus scooped June up in his arms again, earning a near shriek from the ravenette.

“ _Jesus fucking, you’re cold and wet, put me down!_ ”

“i wonder who i have to thank for that?” he replied coldly before turning around and dropping her in the water herself. Now it was June’s turn to screech something unholy, shooting up out of the water so fast, she ended up tackling Papyrus and dragging him to the floor with her.

“F-f-fuck you!” June hissed as she scrambled to get off of him, her hands and feet slipping on the wet tile.

“likewise,” Papyrus shot back, their anger and annoyance with each other blending smoothly. Once the other three finally got their laughter back under control, Undyne leaned over to drain the tub and gasped, glancing at June instantly, all mirth in her eyes gone.

“W-what?” June asked, teeth chattering lightly as Alphys handed her a towel.

Before June could wrap it around herself, Undyne spun her around and pulled up her tank top, gingerly touching the cut across her back. June hissed and flinched away from the contact, her warmth stinging after the blistering cold of the water.

“Oh, stars…y-your wound is bleeding again!”

“What? Shit…” she sighed, pulling her shirt down and the towel around her shivering form. “It’s alright, Undyne. I’ll just go eat some more of that monster candy you gave me while I lay down or something. Pressure on the injury in combination with the healing…whatever is in that candy should do the trick.”

Undyne nodded, taking her hand and leading her down the hall and towards a bedroom first.

“Here, I-I’ve got something that might fit you…so you’re n-not sitting around in wet clothes.”

“Good idea. Thanks.”

Undyne helped her pick out something and change, careful of the wound on her back. At June’s suggestion, Undyne actually took the time to dress it properly, and when she stepped out of the room to go put the medical kit back…

“hey, undyne, you got something i can –”

June’s head snapped to the door, seeing a wide-eyed (eye-socketed?) Papyrus standing there, his cheekbones slowly turning a light orange.

They continued to stare at each other for a bit, Papyrus’ blush getting worse and worse, until finally, June cracked in amusement.

“See something you like, bone boy?” she teased, watching his blush go from a light orange to a bright, practically neon orange. “Or are you just thinking of my oh-so-sexy bones while you stare at me?”

That was evidently a little too far, as the neon orange shifted to a much darker shade, and he practically fell over himself to get out of the room. Still, June could feel she’d hit a nerve as he was kinda-turned on all over again, but it was mostly buried by embarrassment. This caused her to chuckle, and she knew her own amusement was frustrating to the skeleton as he turned around, a hand over his eyes, but now made no move to leave.

“th-that’s not – i-i just – i came to see if –”

“If Undyne might have something you could borrow, too? I mean, she probably does. If you don’t mind almost everything being related to some form of anime.”

Papyrus snorted, amused by her comment. This seemed to relax him a little, but he still didn’t turn back around or uncover his eyes.

“You can turn around, ya know. Hell, you coulda kept staring, really. I’m not shy. Truth be told, I’m _proud_ of my looks. I know I’m sexy as hell, and I don’t mind flaunting it. So go ahead and look if you wanna. Think of it was an opportunity to study human anatomy or something.”

At first, he tensed back up, flustered. But once she offered the idea of thinking of it scientifically, he seemed to relax, not having thought of that himself. After a moment or two of hesitation, he actually did turn around, putting his hand down and looking at her again, still bright orange. Not quite the neon orange from before, but certainly not the earlier light orange, either.

With a sly little smile, she beckoned him closer. He shuffled a little closer to her. She smiled more and beckoned again. He shuffled a little closer. Finally she laughed at his awkwardness and leaned over (grabbing his arm since he was in reach), pulling him up next to her. His face crept closer to that neon orange from before, and June grinned.

“So, what part of me are you interested in studying first?”

And he was neon orange again. But that didn’t deter her, extending her arm up for him to look at.

“We can start small, if it’s easier on you.”

Papyrus just nodded, gently taking her arm and looking over it, his blush fading as he adopted a much more analytical approach to looking at her. He gently ran his phalanges down her arm, tracing the tattoos, seeming to note where her scars were under the ink and tracing them, too. Eventually, they both relaxed as he studied her, working his way down to her hand, feeling for the bones of her wrist and hand. He seemed to marvel at the way her body was put together, going back up her arm and following the curve of her shoulder to her neck. Quiet and gentle, he shifted around to her back, feeling the sharp bones of her shoulder blades under her skin and trailing his fingers down her spine. She shivered at the sensation, straightening her posture quickly and hearing her spine pop once with the action.

Papyrus hesitated, and she could feel his surprise, confusion, and…oh good lord, how many different things were going to turn this skeleton on?? But she waited to see what he would do, rather than teasing him again.

“what was that?”

“That popping sound? Air escaping from between the disks and vertebrae of my spine. My joints do it too, if done just right.”

He hesitated again, but she could feel that he wanted her to do it again, so she carefully stretched her arms over her head, feeling that her shoulder was a bit stiff. Exactly as she expected, her shoulder popped loudly, and she couldn’t stop the slightly blissful noise that slipped past her lips. It felt good to pop a stiff joint! This only seemed to make to worse for Papyrus, though, as she then took the opportunity to tease him that he so willingly granted her.

With a knowing little smile, she rolled her neck, the vertebrae cracking and popping as she did, then stretched her hands where he could see them and, one by one, cracked her knuckles and fingers. June smirked to herself, feeling that she was slowly turning him to putty – just from popping a few joints! Once she finished with her hands, however, he said, “that’s enough, thanks,” his voice rough and husky. He cleared it, and she could feel his embarrassment from that, but she only turned her head, wanting to make him sound like that again.

June could tell Papyrus acted lazy and aloof, but he was actually pretty tightly wound. A sort of mask to show others, like she had. And she suddenly really, _really_ wanted to help him shed that mask and get him to unwind.

“You sure?” she breathed, voice low and tempting. “I’m only just getting started.”

“no that’s – that’s fine. i’ll just…keep studying you now. if you don’t mind. that sounded a lot less weird when you first suggested it. i should go before undyne –”

“Dude, what the fuck? Could you seriously not wait to bang her or something?” Alphys snickered from the doorway.

Embarrassment and mortification flashed through them both, and as June spluttered for an answer, she looked around for the tall skeleton…only to see he had disappeared. Fuck.

“He wasn’t – it wasn’t like that, Alphys!”

“ _Sure_ it wasn’t,” she replied, continuing to snicker.

The two bickered until Undyne returned and shooed Alphys out of the room, worried for June’s health. Both insisted she’d be fine, but Undyne wanted to finish dressing June’s wound in peace.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another longer one...phew! But there we have it! With the bond thing, I like to think of it as a "red string of fate" type of thing, so keep that in mind when I mention the bond between June and Papyrus. (And later characters - you'll see what I mean when we get there.) In the meantime, I hope you guys enjoyed this one, and see you next week for more!


	5. Chapter 5

With that finished (and Undyne done fangirling over the incident with Papyrus – goddamn shipper) and June wearing some borrowed clean clothes, the two female monsters helped her hobble down the stairs. When she made it to the couch, Papyrus looked up from his phone and tried to act as if nothing had happened, but one glance at the borrowed clothes had that funny orange flush racing across his cheekbones.

“What now?” June sighed, trying to ignore the surprise and slight arousal she got from Papyrus.

“OH! HUMAN! WHAT…ARE YOU WEARING?” Sans asked, blue creeping across his face as he observed the outfit. She glanced down at it, annoyed.

The top was an orange crop top of Alphys’ with one shoulder cut away and a skull and cross-bones logo, with the skull wearing a straw hat. (She recognized the logo as the pattern for a pirate flag from the anime _One Piece_ – working at Hot Topic had its perks, and knowing bits and pieces of the more popular nerd culture was one of them.) The bottoms were a pair of dark blue sport shorts from Undyne with dark red bowties all over them. (These were clearly a _Doctor Who_ reference. Again, working at Hot Topic had its perks.) She was without socks, shoes, bra, or panties, since all had been soaked when the taller skeleton had dumped her into the ice bath, and her thick hair was damp in places…but other than that, and it being a rather skin-tight and skin-bearing outfit (all nerdiness aside), she couldn’t figure out what the big deal was. And it wasn’t like they could clearly see her bones under her skin or anything – she was thin, but not that thin. So what was it?

“DID YOU…PICK VERY REVEALING CLOTHES IN THOSE COLORS ON PURPOSE?”

June was really confused now. Okay, she was definitely showing more skin than she usually did, she’d grant them that, but what was wrong with the colors? Well, other than them being the complimentary colors of orange and blue, since the two naturally clashed, but –

All at once, she realized why the colors made a difference. Her Soul was orange and blue, in close to the same shades as the clothes she was wearing. June rounded on Undyne, pointing an accusing finger at her as she started to blush.

“You!”

Undyne shrank back, but she was blushing and giggling and had a sheepish little smile.

“A-actually, I didn’t think about the colors when I was picking them out for you…th-the crop top just m-makes it easier to access your injury. A-and I wasn’t sure any of my pants w-would fit you or not…”

June sighed. She was a little annoyed that this happened, but since Undyne hadn’t actually planned it, she was less frustrated than she could have been.

“It’s fine. Maybe some pants in a different color, though…pajama pants, maybe? But nothing pink!” she called after the blushing fish monster as the red-head dashed up the stairs again. Alphys laughed, little asshole she was.

“You totally saw this coming, didn’t you?”

“Yep!”

“I mean this in the friendliest way possible – but you’re an ass.”

Alphys roared with laughter, and Papyrus finally managed to tear his eyes away from June’s figure.

“asgore’s on his way over, since he and chara are done with their thing. he’s got healing magic, so he’ll be able to fix you up better than the candy.”

“Oh. Thanks. I mean, you really didn’t have to do that, but thanks,” she added, genuinely surprised and a little touched he’d gone out of his way to make sure she would be alright. Then the thought crossed her mind – could he feel when she was in pain? It was clear they shared emotional states, but she was wondering what else could be shared through their connection.

“Hey, question. This whole…bonded thing. I’m curious about something. Do you know if we can share other things besides emotions through the bond? Like, could I feel it if you used your magic? Or can we do like a more advanced telepathy thing? Or, like…would we feel each other’s pain?”

Papyrus glanced at her, then looked away as he thought on it.

“not sure, actually. but we can test it. did you feel it earlier, when i carried you upstairs?”

June paused this time, thinking. Had she? She’d been so focused on Papyrus being an ass and the weightless sensation of whatever he’d done, she couldn’t really tell if she’d felt his magic or not. So she finally shook her head, stating as much.

“huh. well, in that case, pay a little more attention this time.”

June was the slightest bit offended at the way he worded it, but it was quickly forgotten when one of his eyes flared with orange magic and he pointed – the hand he pointed with enveloped with magic that licked at his bones like flames – to her. No, not her, the forgotten ice pack from earlier, as it lifted into the air, held aloft by magic as bright orange as its user. She rarely had the chance to observe monster magic, so she was very interested, and only remembered a moment before the ice pack was lifted over her head that she was supposed to be checking if she could feel him using his magic. Concentrating on the bond between them, June realized that, though she couldn’t say she could directly feel his magic or him using it, there was a vague and murky sense of…raw power, channeling through a body. June knew that feeling very well. After all, she had quite a bit of power herself, and harnessing it meant focusing the pure energy and magic to bend to her will. But this somehow felt different than that…possibly because it was so disconnected. Yet, June sensed there was more to it than that, and she just couldn’t put her finger on it…

“Ack!” June squawked, flinching when the ice pack suddenly dropped onto her head. She shot Papyrus a glare and he chuckled, amused that he caught her off guard like that.

“so? what’s the verdict?”

She hesitated, but decided to tell him anyway.

“I kinda could, but I kinda couldn’t. Like, it wasn’t as clear as our emotions, but I could sense…something. Almost like I could feel the raw power as you were controlling it, but it was really disconnected from me. Does that make sense?”

Papyrus thought about it, then nodded.

“actually, it does. in a weird way.”

June hummed softly, taking hold of the ice pack and gingerly placing it against the back of her head again, over the lump where Sans had struck her.

“still hurting?”

“Kinda, but not really. My head kinda hurts, but mostly I’m just tired now. Though it now occurs to me that we left a lot of our earlier conversations unsaid as we got sidetracked by this or that. So I’d like to get back to some of that, if we could.”

Papyrus shrugged, slouching further into his seat (and still pointedly not looking at June). Instead of talking directly to Papyrus, however, June turned first to Sans.

“I never did get an answer out of you for why you and Alphys both went berserk on me earlier. What happened back there?”

She made her tone as gentle and open as possible, trying to show him there were no hard feelings over that, but Sans still looked very guilty when she brought it up. It kind of reminded her of May when she would get in trouble or something.

“I…I AM SORRY FOR GOING OVERBOARD EARLIER…” Sans said, seeming almost on the verge of tears. “I DID NOT MEAN TO HARM YOU. I WAS VERY ABSORBED IN THE TRAINING, AND…”

June sighed softly. So his excuse was similar to Alphys’. Neither one really knew what had come over them, other than getting too wrapped up in the fighting.

“Sans, Sans, hey, hold up. Don’t –” June flinched when she went to move and she felt her wound pull some. She gritted her teeth and stubbornly moved to cup his face gently with a serious look. “– don’t blame yourself. And don’t beat yourself up over it, okay? It happens. And you know something? You taught me a very valuable lesson.”

She could feel the surprise emanating from Papyrus at her words, matching Sans’ surprise and confusion.

“I DID?”

“Yep. You and Alphys both. You guys taught me not to turn my back to my opponents at any time, even when I think the fight might be over. And to be careful if I ever decide to join you guys again. I think I slightly underestimated you guys or something for it to only last…what, five seconds, if that? Monsters are tough. I figured you would be, but…I didn’t give that thought enough credit, I guess. You got me good, and I gracefully accept defeat at your hands. Don’t feel bad or ashamed or anything. It’s hard for me to find anyone who can match me in a fight, so that fact that you bested me really says something. But don’t expect me to hold back next time, got it ya little blueberry?” she added with a challenging spark in her dark eyes. Sans instantly perked back up, his own eyes twinkling with a competitive fire.

“OF COURSE, HUMAN!! BUT DO NOT THINK THAT YOU WILL EVEN STAND A CHANCE NEXT TIME, EITHER! MWEH-HEH-HEH!!!”

June chuckled and smirked, a pleasant warmth settling in her chest at having comforted and cheered the small skeleton. God, what a cutie. And, even better, Papyrus’ surprise melted into (clearly begrudging) approval. She had just scored some brownie points with the tall skeleton for being nice to his brother. (As if she would be anything but, when the little blue cinnamon roll was so much like her sister.)

Just then Undyne came back from upstairs, brandishing fluffy Sailor Moon PJ bottoms…that were bright pink. June scowled at them, sighing when she reminded the fish monster she’d asked specifically for nothing pink. Alphys snickered lightly at June’s hatred of the color before following her girlfriend back upstairs to help her look for more fitting bottoms.

“so…was there anything else?” Papyrus asked, and June returned her attention to him, popping a monster candy into her mouth to relieve some of the ache from her back. She sucked on the sweet as she thought back, trying to think about what all she’d wanted to bring up. She hummed as she finally remembered something.

“Right. I’d wanted to ask more about your magic. The…I’m not sure if teleporting is an accurate description of what you do, but that thing where you move from one place to another near-instantaneously. I have a bunch of questions about that.”

Papyrus blinked, and it was clear he wasn’t sure how to respond to that. After a second, he radiated reluctance and caution, but he scratched the back of his head anyway, seeming willing to relent.

“uh…fire away, i guess?”

“Thanks. So, that weightless feeling. Why does it feel like that moment of weightlessness right before a body begins to fall?”

“geez, you’re perceptive. people don’t usually know how to describe that.”

“As we’ve already established, bone boy – I’m not most people,” June replied with a sassy little smirk, followed by a careless shrug. She flinched slightly at the pain brought on by the tug on her wound, but it was much better than it had been before, thanks to the candies.

“fair enough. and, for the record, i kinda can feel it when you’re in pain. but it’s like you described with feeling my magic. it’s disconnected and vague, but it’s there.”

“Oh. I forgot about that. I’ll try not to move so much or give myself more of a headache, then. Thanks for that. And though that doesn’t get you out of answering my question entirely, I’ll let it slide for now. I’m starting to get tired, so I won’t hound you as much as I would if I actually had the energy for it.”

Papyrus grunted an odd affirmative, and June ignored the sense of suspicion and curiosity from him. Mostly because just then, there was a knock at the door.

“I WILL ANSWER IT!” Sans exclaimed, jumping up and racing to the door. June huffed a small laugh with a tiny smile at him as he swung the door open with enthusiasm.

“CHARA!! LORD ASGORE!! I AM GLAD YOU ARE HERE!!!”

“Hi Sans!” Chara called before skirting past him.

“Hello, Sans. We came as soon as we could, once Papyrus texted me,” Asgore replied, ducking his head to get his horns through the door. Sans and Chara quickly moved out of his way, and June turned just right to get a twinge of pain through her skull. She hissed softly, trying not to draw their attention. (She still got a sliver of worry from Papyrus, though, since he could feel her pain.)

“you guys got here pretty fast, for being stuck at a political thing,” Papyrus commented, getting up and meeting the ex-king halfway. “thanks for making the trip. she’s over here.”

June sighed and raised a hand to wave to the goat monster and child ambassador, twitching lightly when the motion sent another shot of pain through her back.

“Hey. I, uh, guess tall ‘n skeletal told you what happened, huh?”

Chara looked confused, glancing to Asgore and Papyrus for clarification of her meaning. Concern and sympathy flashed across the large monster’s muzzle before he came over, kneeling in front of June.

“He told me some of what happened. I would like to hear things from your perspective, however. So, if it is not too much trouble…”

“Oh, no, no. No trouble at all. It’s not gonna bother me to tell you what happened. No shame in it or anything. If I could just remember not to move so much…” she added under her breath when she casually shrugged and ended up wincing in pain.

“Wait, hold up,” Chara said as Papyrus levitated a chair over for Asgore. “What the heck are you guys talking about? Are you hurt, June?”

“Yeah…I guess your dad might not have told you. I was sparring with Alphys and Sans earlier and…really, I’m not sure what happened. Maybe I overestimated myself a little, maybe I underestimated them, maybe I was just off my game…I dunno. But Alphys got me across the back with her axe, and Sans hit the base of my skull. I healed some of the damage with some monster candies Undyne gave me, but I’m still pretty beat up.”

Chara turned to Sans with a scolding, upset look, but June quickly turned their gaze back to her before the child could open their mouth.

“Hey, before you go chastising either of them, know this. Most likely, the reason I got hurt was on me. I don’t blame them for my getting hurt. And neither should you. Got it?”

The ravenette looked into Chara’s eyes as she spoke, hoping her point would get across. She knew she wasn’t exactly the most charismatic person in the world, but she was honest, always either speaking her mind or stating the facts of a situation, and that was what often swayed others to her way of thinking. She just had to hope her honesty would win out this time, too.

And from the look on Chara’s face, they wanted to argue the point with her, but couldn’t find a good response. Finally they sighed and took her hand, pulling it gently from their face.

“You’re right. You’re the one who got hurt, but if _you_ don’t blame them, then no one else has a right to.”

June nodded, pleased with this answer and went to lean back, wincing as she did.

“One lesson even I have trouble with sometimes, kid…know when to pick your battles. Trust me, this isn’t one of them.”

“and earlier was?”

June shot the tall skeleton a look that instantly silenced him. Or maybe it was the challenge she directed his way that had him backing off…either way, Papyrus was clearly a skeleton who knew the value of the “pick your battles” lesson.

“All this aside,” Asgore finally interjected, “I appreciate your telling me your view on the matter. Now, if I may –”

“Yo, PUNK! Let’s see if THIS is more to your liking! Oh, hey Asgore!”

Alphys dropped a new pair of pajama bottoms on June, making the girl flinch slightly at the unexpected action. She gave the reptilian monster a scowl as she examined them, however.

“No pink this time?”

“Nope! Not one thread!”

After thoroughly going over the dark red _Attack on Titan_ pants, June nodded in approval and had Undyne help her up to get them on. Asgore and Chara both looked very confused by the interruption.

“We found out the colors of my Soul,” June explained bluntly, “and they happened to match the colors of the shorts and top.”

Chara blinked blankly, then started laughing as understanding crossed their face. Asgore just looked scandalized and was a blushing mess. (Blushing goat dad was actually kinda cute and funny…)

“Oh. I see,” he replied, and June had to suppress and snort of amusement. She knew why he was acting like this, of course, and why the skeletons before had been blushing and embarrassed, but it was still funny, even if she had to pretend she didn’t understand.

“I’d ask what’s the big deal, but from your faces…” June chuckled. “Anyway, should we get this show on the road, or…?”

“Ah, yes, of course!” (Poor thing, the large goat was all too eager to get away from the topic.) “If you would please turn around so I may access your injury.”

“Sure, sure.”

It took a little work, but June managed to get flipped around on the couch so Asgore could get to the wounds, with her sighing and relaxing as the healing magic sank in to her skin.

“June? I have a question, child.”

“Fire away.”

(Papyrus, Asgore, Chara, and Alphys all chuckled or snickered at her wording, while Undyne made a face. She couldn’t see Sans’ reaction, but she had to wonder what she’d said that was so amusing.)

“Well, child…I know that Alphys and Sans are both quite powerful. I also remember you mentioned healing some of the damage you took with monster candy already, but…there is not much for me to do here. So I am curious…”

“You wanna know how I took so little damage from them in the first place.”

“That is correct.”

She sighed and once again recited her Stats, stretching and popping some joints once Asgore was finished healing her. (She had to resist glancing over at Papyrus with a smirk when she felt his reaction.) She turned back around on her own in time to catch him staring at her, and she glanced around the room quickly.

“Uh, something wrong?”

“I-it’s still so weird to hear that y-you’re that strong…”

June blinked blankly at the blue fish woman, then Asgore piped up with, “You…are more powerful than I imagined. And there is something you mentioned that bothers me. You said you have… _two_ Soul colors?”

Red flags of suspicion and dread went up in June’s mind as she eyed the goat monster carefully.

“Yeah…?”

Oh god, did he know? She had figured one of the monsters would, but none of them so far had. They had noticed the colors, but hadn’t made the connection to June being a mage yet. But if anyone were to know, it’d make sense it was the former king of the monsters. He had to know. The worried, conflicted look slowly crossing his muzzle? No, he definitely knew. Would Asgore out her to the others, then? Was all of this too good to be true, and she’d gotten attached for nothing? Was she really going to lose this good thing she had going just because she was a mage? There was a strong chance she was about to lose them for something she couldn’t even help.

In the following silence, June was struggling hard to smother her raging emotions, ranging from panic to despair and loneliness. She knew Papyrus could sense them anyway, but she still instinctively tried. Besides, she was more trying to smother them for her own benefit. It was part of how she could maintain a neutral and confused face to Asgore’s concerned expression. (The other part being that, over the years, she had become quite skilled at hiding her emotions.)

“I…I see…that is…most unusual. Well then. As you are to be looking after Chara from now on,” Asgore continued, clumsily attempting to gloss over his own reaction, “you and I shall need to discuss the specifics of your duties, payment, and other such matters. Are you able to stand and walk?”

“Uh…I think so?”

Wow – he was about as subtle as a _Five Nights at Freddy’s_ jumpscare. Evidently, he was trying to talk to her alone, and she knew it was about more than her “new job”. (She honestly wasn’t even sure that was still going to be a thing. At this point, she didn’t dare hope. On a side note, Papyrus responded with alarm at her wild emotions and sudden hopelessness.)

June quietly followed Asgore to the kitchen, where he turned to her and stopped her with a hard look.

“Miss Juniper Skies,” he began, (though June had to stop herself from grimacing in disgust at the title, since he was being so serious) “If you would kindly explain to me why you felt to need to hide your identity as a mage?”

Now June winced, running a hand through her hair and looking away. Shit…she was right. He knew. But…he hadn’t immediately outed her like she thought he might…however, he really wasn’t subtle about dealing with this. And now she had to explain herself. Great.

“I…” she started with a sigh, still not meeting his eyes. “I wasn’t… _trying_ to keep it from anyone. I just didn’t tell anyone. No one was asking, after all.”

The ravenette shrank under the look he gave, and she briefly flashed back to when she was a child and…she didn’t want to think about it, shuddering as she forced herself to clear the thought from her mind.

“Okay, look. I didn’t say anything because I’m used to hiding. I’m used to blending in and being invisible. I’m used to pretending I’m just a normal human, no matter how far from the truth that is. And I’m used to that because I knew I was a mage long before you guys ever came to the surface. Thing is, with monsters back, some mages have tried to reveal themselves. And you know what happened? They’re in the same boat you guys are. They’re feared, hated, _rejected_ by the humans. And I’ve had it bad enough _without_ people knowing I’m a freak of nature. I don’t even want to _begin_ to imagine what I’d have to put up with if anyone knew. So yeah, no, I didn’t say anything. But only to protect myself and May.”

Asgore remained relatively stone-faced as she talked, but by the end, his expression softened, and he sighed heavily.

“I see. I believe I understand your plight now. If you were to reveal yourself as a mage, it would make things infinitely harder for you. Thus why you make it a point not to do anything that would expose your true nature. I must say that, due to past experiences with mages, I do not feel completely comfortable with you now that I am aware…however, I can move past my own discomfort. Especially given what you already done for us, proving that you are an ally to monsters. That said…I am not sure how well Toriel will react to this. She is…well, her dislike of mages is even stronger than mine.”

“Dislike, or hate?” June responded dryly. Asgore looked nervous and played with his fingers a bit before replying.

“Hate is…a strong word.”

“But not inaccurate.”

“…no.”

June sighed heavily and ran a hand through her hair. She really should have seen this coming. Everything was going way too well until now. (The blip during sparring and seeing her Void friend aside.) And since it was assumed that Toriel liking her was what determined if she got the job as Chara’s body guard/baby sitter, the second the queen found out what she was (because she had to know who was taking care of the monster ambassador, right?), it was practically guaranteed that she would be rejected. Hell, she’d probably be shunned, the news spread among the monsters, and all of them would avoid her.

Goddammit, she hated being a mage sometimes. Why couldn’t she have been born just a normal human?

“Child? Are you alright?”

June returned her attention to Asgore, surfacing from her thoughts. He looked extremely concerned, occasionally glancing down towards her chest. It was an easy guess with his personality that he was checking her Soul, rather than sneaking peeks at her boobs.

“Yeah…” she sighed. “My Soul has a habit of fluctuating pretty widely when it comes to the brightness, despite the fact that it hovers near a medium light level usually. Not something to be too worried about.”

Asgore blushed and fidgeted, not glancing at her chest anymore. He was most likely embarrassed by how easily she had picked up on what he was worried about. She had to wonder, though…just how much of her Soul could he see if it wasn’t exposed? That was something she’d never heard about when it came to monsters.

“Asgore? Totally off topic question…when you guys look at a person’s Soul and it’s not been brought out…what do you see?”

“Oh, ah…well…we see the brightness, of course. And any damage that has occurred. But that is all. Most monsters cannot determine color if the Soul is not exposed.”

“Most monsters.”

“Yes. There are a few exceptions. Skeleton monsters like Sans and Papyrus being one such exception.”

Well that made a lot of sense. Perhaps all the staring Papyrus had been doing before was less about reading her and more about reading her Soul…

“That makes a lot of sense, actually…”

Suddenly, a great pounding came from the front door, making both of them jump.

“Who on earth could that be…?” Asgore muttered, but June was already moving to the hallway, sticking her head out just as Alphys shouted that she’d answer the door. Even with Alphys there, there was a chance she could react in time to counter it if danger was the one knocking.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Man, I can't believe how well received OaBS has been. 15 kudos and 165 hits already! And only four (now five) chapters in! I am so happy about that, because this one is much more toned down as far as plot than my other works, and I was a bit worried that the semi-slice of life dynamic going on wouldn't be as interesting as my more plot-heavy works. (Actually, it's the opposite, but I'm still loving every hit, comment, and kudos I get.)  
> Anyway, I don't have much more than that to say right now, so as always, I hope you enjoyed this one, and I'll see you next week for more!


	6. Chapter 6

As soon as the yellow reptile opened the door, however, June relaxed instinctually, blinking in confusion. It was her own sister standing at the door, shifting her weight anxiously back and forth. Even from so far away, she could practically feel the nervous energy pouring off the younger girl. But what on earth had her so worked up?

“Oh, hey, punk. What are you –”

“Not to be rude, Alphys, but where is she?”

“Huh?”

“My sister. June. Where is she?”

Alphys blinked and stood in the way, clearly perplexed by the behavior of the normally sweet and charming girl.

“She’s in here. In the kitchen with Asgore, I think. They went to talk about something. What’s got your panties in a twist?”

“Let her in, Alphys,” June called, stepping fully out of the kitchen and positioning herself just so. As soon as May caught sight of June, you could almost see the well of emotion bubbling up from within her, and she nearly ran over Alphys in her rush to get to June.

“Oh my god, June!” the younger ravenette murmured into her sister’s shoulder when she tackled the elder with a hug. “Are you alright?! I heard you got hurt!”

“Wha-? How’d you hear about that?” June replied, honestly surprised. There was literally no way May should have known about that. She wasn’t here, so unless someone told her – which none of them could have, June realized, since none of the monster had May’s number – but then, how did she…?

“I got a text from you saying you’d gotten hurt and needed me to come over. Well, it was from your phone, anyway. It obviously wasn’t you who sent it because you never refer to yourself in the third person, but the text said you were hurt and to come to this address, so I cleared it with my boss and came straight here as fast as I could. Are you alright?”

Before June could properly answer (or even finish processing what May had rambled on about), the younger started turning her around, looking for injuries and generally fussing about. June only got her to stop by turning around and forcibly grabbing May’s hands, drawing her attention to the older’s face.

“May. Baby girl. I’m fine. Please calm down. I was hurt, but Asgore already healed me. I’m not hurt anymore.”

“Really?”

“Yes. I’m okay. And trust me, you’d be the first to know if I wasn’t.”

May stared into her sister’s eyes for a moment, searching for a lie, but finally relaxed when she didn’t find one, blinking rapidly as tears finally sprang to her eyes. She easily slipped out of June’s grip and wrapped her older sister in a big hug, one June didn’t hesitate to reciprocate.

“Thank god…I was so worried…the text was so vague, and I had no idea what was wrong. All I knew was that you needed me…”

“It’s okay, baby girl. I’m alright. I’m not going anywhere,” June gently consoled her, stroking May’s hair soothingly. “You’re not getting rid of me that easy.”

This got a giggle out of May, even if it was a bit watery. She did pull away, however, to wipe her tears.

“So…what happened?”

June sighed and recanted how she had become injured in the first place. May looked pretty distraught over it, but June calmed her again by continuing to tell her the events afterward. (Skipping over the bit with Hands, though. May didn’t know about him, and June hoped she never would. Knowing that she did about the Void…June knew May wouldn’t stand for June going there anymore. Even if she couldn’t help it.) (She also skipped the part about hers and Papyrus’ Souls bonding, but gave May a look that said there was more, and she would tell the younger girl about it later.)

“Wow…that’s…why is it you always get into more trouble when I’m not around?” May chastised playfully, swatting at her sister’s arm. June chuckled helplessly and shrugged.

“Because I’m a danger magnet?”

“You are not. Just because you _look_ like trouble…to most people, anyway. But that’s beside the point. You are right about one thing, though. Trouble does have a way of finding you, even when you avoid it.”

“Which is why it’s such a good thing I’m well-equipped to handle it,” June replied confidently, flipping her hair for extra measure. May giggled and rolled her eyes.

“Yeah, I know. You don’t need to remind me.”

“But I’m so good at that.~”

May continued to giggle bringing up the mood in the room significantly. While May’s magic had nothing to do with mood manipulation or emotions, she exuded the kind of energy that could brighten a room just from her walking in. June could turn heads, sure, but she didn’t have the same effect May did. She could respect her sister’s prowess with people, though, since people weren’t really her thing anyway.

“Oh, hey, I just remembered. You mentioned a text from my phone?”

“Oh, right. The thing that brought me here in the first place. Oh, wait! Hold on, I gotta text my boss and let him know it was a false alarm.”

May quickly texted her boss to let him know everything was okay (as she undoubtedly had left in a near panic), then went to the text she’d been talking about and handed her phone to June.

_Junie-B Jones: hey. june’s been hurt. you should get here as soon as you can._

It also listed Alphys and Undyne’s address, but June furrowed her brow at the screen. She had most certainly not sent that. She didn’t even have her phone. Which was a thought that had nagged at her earlier…the only way for May to have gotten this text and heard that June had been hurt was for one of the monsters (or Chara) to have taken her phone when she wasn’t paying attention and sent the vague text.

Thing was, the list of those who would have or were actually capable of getting into her phone was small. It couldn’t have been Asgore – she’d been talking to him when the text was sent. And Chara didn’t seem the type to steal phones behind someone’s back. Same went for Sans. Alphys wouldn’t have been able to get past June’s password and probably would have smashed the phone out of frustration, and Undyne – while definitely smart enough to hack into the phone – couldn’t have because she would have thought it a betrayal. And after all that June had done for her and Alphys so far? There was no way Undyne would risk it.

That left one person, and she had no idea if Papyrus had the patience or technological know-how to hack her phone. She didn’t actually know anything about him, come to think about it. But all signs were pointing to him. So she turned her scowl into an accusatory glare at the tall skeleton.

“what?”

“You. You stole my phone and texted her, didn’t you?”

“wha-? seriously? why would you think i did it?”

June gave him a deadpan look and explained her reasoning, and the surprise on his face mirrored what she felt coming from him.

“Whoa. You, like, nailed all of us…” Alphys said, her voice soft and very impressed.

“Wow…you’re so clever!” Chara murmured, staring at June with starry eyes once more. “How’d you get so smart?!”

The green-eyed ravenette blushed and chuckled, a little abashed by the praise.

“Ah, well…I don’t really know. I just…am? Like, I have a photographic memory, so I just…know stuff. Once I’ve seen it, it generally sticks up there for future use. Made my classes in school really boring, though.”

Chara muttered something about being lucky as Sans and May giggled simultaneously, mostly drowning them out.

“It’s true. June’s got an incredible memory for anything she’s seen, so she could read a textbook and fly through a class, no problem. The trick is whenever she has to memorize something based on any other sense.”

June shrugged, but turned back towards Papyrus.

“We’re getting really off topic, though. So, as it stands you’re the only one I can figure that would or could have taken my phone and texted May. Question is, how’d you get past my lock?”

She could feel he was nervous, even though the tall skeleton nonchalantly slouched lower in his chair like he was trying to get more comfortable.

“well, i had to guess based on what little i knew about you what the password was. and…it wasn’t easy, i’ll tell ya that. but i gotta hand it to ya… _depictumancer_ …certainly an interesting choice for a password. and i didn’t peg ya for a techy type. guess i know better now.”

The sisters both froze, and out of the corner of her eye, June noticed Asgore stiffen as well. Well, so much for worrying about Asgore outing her.

“H-how did you…?”

“your tattoos. you said they were the ultimate expression of your skill. so it’s assumed you meant your skill in art, because we’ve seen a little bit of your other skills, and they have nothing to do with those,” he added with a gesture to her person. “point being, if those are a testament to your skill, and you said you were proud of them, then you have a deep connection to your art. i tried a couple of things first, particularly anything i could thing of that had to do with may, but since nothing matched, i had to look elsewhere. and when we have so few clues on you, the next best guess i had was with your passions or hobbies. one of which being your art. though it still took me longer than i care to admit to guess that particular word.”

“Yeah, well, you shouldn’t have been guessing it in the first place,” June spat, trying to veer away from having to explain why her password for her phone was “depictumancer”. “In fact, I’d like to know why the hell you thought it was a good idea to steal my property and invade my privacy. Speaking of which – my phone?”

Papyrus blinked, clearly not expecting her outburst, but removed her phone from his hoodie pocket and handed it back to her anyway.

“i…well, i…”

“No good answer? That’d be because you had no reason to hack into my phone. I mean, I get it. I’m new to the group, and a human to boot. You’re not going to trust me. But this? This is too far. This is not just an invasion of my privacy – which, by the way, I wouldn’t do to you, no matter how much I didn’t trust you – but a serious breach of trust. I shouldn’t have to worry about getting my shit stolen and fucked with by someone who’s paranoid.”

With that, June got to her feet, May shooting up to follow, a worried expression on her face.

“Look, the rest of you – I have no problems with any of you. Text me any time you like, or call me, or whatever. I’ll be by…some other time to return the clothes and pick up mine,” she added, directing that bit to Alphys and Undyne. “But you, ya tall asshole – you can lose my number. I’m out. Thanks for…well, everything, guys. I’ll keep in touch.”

She then scooped up her remaining belongings and headed for the door. May hesitated, staying behind and glancing around the room at their stunned and somewhat confused expressions.

“I…I’m sorry. About June. She’s…she doesn’t really trust very easily. That’s part of why she was so upset. She…she’s never really had many friends because most people see her as some sort of…outsider, for lack of a better word. They take one look at her, and judge her for her appearance. And most people think she looks scary, so they don’t want to be around her or try to get to know her. Honestly…you guys are the first to give her a chance. So…it makes sense she kinda takes it personally that you took advantage of what little trust she had.”

The guilt on Papyrus’ face said all May needed to know in order for her to be okay pressing on.

“I know this is probably a lot to ask, Papyrus, but…please try to make it up to her. June needs this more than you realize. And it would really mean a lot to me if you made up with her.”

Papyrus sunk deeper into his chair and muttered under his breath. May just sighed and gave the others a small, weary smile.

“I’ll be back by later tonight to pick up June’s clothes. I’ll bring back your stuff then as well. I hope you’ll come by the café some time! And, uh…”

“hold up, kid. before you go, i’ve got a quick question.”

“Okay, shoot.”

“how’d you get here so fast? i sent that text from her phone less than ten minutes before you got here. and it took undyne – coming from around the same area you were in – _at least_ fifteen minutes to get here. so…?”

May blinked owlishly at the tall skeleton, frozen in place and unable to answer.

“Uh…I…uh…I really shouldn’t keep June waiting, _okaybye!_ ”

Without missing a beat, she bolted from the room, dashing out the door before anyone could react to her sudden departure. She then jumped in June’s waiting car, and the two left.

“Well that was unexpected. What were you running from?”

“Papyrus. He…he asked how I got here so fast.”

“Well you ran, didn’t you?”

“Well _yeah,_ but I couldn’t _tell him that!_ ”

“Oh. Right. Uh, so, I have a couple things I need to tell you about as I take you back to work…”

“Oh great. This sounds like it’s going to be a joy.”

“Yeah…”

June then mentioned the fact that Asgore knew June was a mage (and he now knew which type – thanks, Papyrus), and then brought up the Soul bonding. June was just pulling up to the café when May reacted to that news, jaw dropping and icy-blue eyes bugging out.

“Oh my god! You – you _bonded_ with someone! You bonded to _Papyrus!_ Oh my god, Celest is gonna freak! Especially when she hears it was a Level 3 bond! With a _monster_ who doesn’t know you’re a _mage._ Oh man, that’s so bad. That’s so dangerous! Can…can he sense your magic?”

“I don’t know, but I can sense his, and I really don’t wanna find out if it goes both ways. But whatever you do, you _cannot_ tell Celest. Or Mark. I don’t want them finding out about this.”

“Why not? She’s _your_ godmother. And Mark’s your god-brother. Not to mention, she’s the one who taught all three of us about mage culture and how to use our magic and blending in and stuff. Why wouldn’t you want her to know that you’ve finally bonded with somebody?”

“Literally for the reasons you already said. I’m a mage bonded to a monster who has no _fucking_ idea I’m a mage. If he finds out, I’m probably dead. Or worse. And I don’t want Celest trying to butt in to protect me. Her or Mark. It’ll only end badly.”

May started to protest, but closed her mouth and whined softly, knowing June was right.

“And you can’t tell Mom, either. It’s bad enough she knows about my abilities as a Depictumancer.”

“Yeah, I know. She doesn’t even know that I’m a mage, let alone that I’m a Class-Two Green/Purple Metahuman. Trust me, I know it’s not a road we want to go down.”

“Good. Now go on, you’ve got work to do. Earn that sweet moolah,” June joked, which got May to giggle and drop the subject for the moment. The sisters hugged before May exited, June driving off moments later.

Once June made it back to their apartment, she relaxed for a bit by listening to music and doodling, then changed and started training on her punching bag. She only paused when her AI, Lola, alerted her to a call on her cell.

“Yellow?” she answered, her breathing coming in light pants as she caught her breath.

“Ah, howdy, June…is this a bad time, child?”

“No, no. I was just…training. It helps me work out my energy. What can I do for you, Asgore?”

“I was wondering if perhaps we could continue to discuss your employment and…situation.”

June’s heart dropped. Right. She’d forgotten about that for a while. She sighed and agreed, flopping down on her couch to continue the talk. She’d probably want to be sitting down for this anyway.

“Well, as I was going to tell you, I already spoke to Toriel prior to discovering your being a mage. She agreed that having you as Chara’s guardian was indeed a good idea. However, I know she will attempt to change her mind once she knows as well. That said…as Chara’s parent, I am willing to override her decision. Despite the fact that your being a mage makes me rather wary, I cannot deny that you are the most qualified person we know to protect and look after Chara. Considering that, and the fact that Chara is quite taken with you themselves, it would be foolhardy of me to refuse you the position. So, as of today, consider yourself hired. Though we will need to get official paperwork and payment ironed out still…”

June was shocked. Asgore was still willing to hire her? She wasn’t going to lose this? Was…was this for real? She didn’t want to hope, but she couldn’t help herself.

“Child? June?”

“I…are you…for real? Like, you’re not just pranking me or some…crap?” she quickly corrected before she could swear again. She realized she had done quite a bit of swearing in front of Chara, and Asgore definitely wouldn’t approve of that. But he was clearly willing to look past that and seriously consider her anyway.

“Yes, child. This is a serious matter, and not something I would joke about.”

“Oh…wow, I…I wasn’t expecting that. I…I really thought…huh. Maybe I was wrong…”

“Wrong about what, child?”

“Monsters being the same as humans. I think I was wrong. I think…maybe monsters are better. We could really learn something from you guys…if anyone ever took the chance.”

There was silence on the line, and when June prompted Asgore, he replied, “I was…merely moved once again by your words. You have quite the silver tongue, child.”

“So I’ve been told,” June chuckled warmly. “Just never in a good context.”

Asgore chuckled, then added, “Ah, here we are. I have some for the paperwork for your employment. However, Toriel has the rest, and we shall need to go through her to get this sorted out fully. When would be a good time to meet you and get this filled out?”

“Ah, any time tomorrow, I guess. Or whenever works for you. Since I was…ya know, fired today. And I have nowhere else to be.”

“Right. Yes, of course. Ah…perhaps it would be best for you to meet us first thing tomorrow morning at the city hall? Around eight?”

“Sure, sure. I can do that, easy. I’ll see you then.”

“Wonderful. Thank you, child. We will see you first thing tomorrow. See you later.”

“Yep. Later, Asgore. Ruffle Chara’s hair for me.”

The goat monster chuckled and agreed to it, then hung up. Well. That went better than expected. June grinned to herself and actually felt kind of excited, getting up and dancing a small jig to herself.

“I’ve got a new job!~ I’ve got a new job!~” June sang lightly as she danced, pleased as punch. She even took a break from her training as celebration and played some Guitar Hero. Once May got back, June swept her sister up in her excitement, getting the younger to play some as well before settling down and listening to her day.

As promised, Alphys and Undyne had visited the café, though they had been kind of awkward about it when they first walked in. When they (surprisingly meekly, for Alphys) asked for her, the excitement she had when she greeted them had banished any thoughts that she might be holding any kind of grudge or negative feelings towards them. And, as predicted, they had loved her food, declaring that they would bring the entire group back here to see her. She, of course, had been delighted, insisting they trade phone numbers with her as well as come back. Alphys had assured her that they would pass her number along to the rest of the group, too. Really, the whole visit had been the highlight of her night.

June waited until after May was done to tell her about Asgore’s call, and the two celebrated by treating themselves to ice cream and playing more Guitar Hero together until May needed to go to bed. June then trained until she felt weary enough to drop into bed herself, setting an alarm just before she hit the hay to get up in time for her meeting with Asgore – and most likely, Toriel.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, guys! Shorter chapter this week, but it does cover some important stuff - particularly with the world-building of the mages in this one. The only other one that has this same concept for the mages in my writing is The Skeleton and the Pauper, and I haven't yet posted the chapter there that covers the concepts I mention in this one. So, until I do post that chapter in SatP, if you guys have any questions, leave a comment or go to my Tumblr and shoot me an ask! I'd love to answer what I can. :) Now, with that said, I hope you guys enjoyed this one, and I'll see you next week for more!


	7. Author's Note

Hey, guys. Singing_Dream, here. So, let me start by saying I really didn’t want to do this. I didn’t want to be the author that updated, but instead of putting a chapter up, it was a notice to the readers. I’m understanding when it happens to the authors of the stories I read, but I never wanted it to be me. Unfortunately, my hand is being forced.

So, I do a lot of writing. And I do it quite frequently. And the thing about that is…I don’t keep back-ups of my writing. I’m adding to it and updating my writing too often for me to keep accurate back-up files. Which automatically sounds bad, right? Well, it gets worse. I had been working on a new chapter for Six Knights, Two Princesses when my boyfriend demanded my attention. So I let him have it for a few minutes, but when I tried to get back to my writing, he started messing with me and horsing around. That would have been all fine and good…if the horsing around hadn’t knocked my laptop to the floor. With my flash drive still connected.

The worst part of the whole thing? That flash drive is the one I keep all of my writing on, not just my Undertale stuff. My fanfiction, my poetry, my original works, my resume… _everything._ And now the flash drive is bent a bit and won’t read in my laptop. Which is why the author’s note. I can’t actually access my writing right now, so updates are coming to a grinding halt until I can either get it fixed, or get the data off it and onto a new flash drive. Until then, please bear with me, guys.

For Six Knights, Two Princesses, there won’t really be much of a noticeable difference. I’ve already missed an update because I didn’t have a new chapter ready in time. But now I can say for sure that there won’t be one until I can access my work again.

For Orange and Blueberry Skies and The Skeleton and the Pauper, there will be a noticeable change, since I’m going to miss the next update or two until I can get my writing back.

For Breaching the Multiverse, there might not be a noticeable change, since my co-author, Book_Warrior7 has a (not recently updated, but still currently useful) copy of my writing as well. She should be able to post the chapters in my stead for the time being.

And for Beyond the Multiverse, since it didn’t have a set posting schedule anyway, there won’t be any change from my end at all. (Though if anyone was reading that one its own since it’s bonus content for Breaching the Multiverse, I would question why you’re doing so.)

I’m posting this to all of my current works, since it’s going to be at least a week as of posting this before I can get back to my writings, and you all deserve to know what’s going on instead of radio silence for that week. And please know I am really, incredibly sorry to have to do this. As it stands, if/when I can get my writings back, I will replace this author’s note with a double chapter update proper (if I am able) to make up for the missed updates.

Again, I’m really sorry this happened, but until I can fix it, most everything is going on hiatus. I hope you guys can forgive me and be patient until I can come back.

With much love and respect,

Singing_Dream


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